Turkey's opposition vows to sustain protests over jailing of Erdogan's main rival

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's main opposition leader on Sunday pledged further protests against the jailing of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, President Tayyip Erdogan's chief rival, aiming to sustain Turkey's biggest demonstrations in more than a decade.

The protests began on March 19 when Imamoglu, a member of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), was detained on corruption charges in what protesters, opposition parties, European leaders and rights groups called a politicised and anti-democratic move.

The government denies any influence over the judiciary, and says the courts are independent.

Speaking at an extraordinary congress at which he was re-elected party leader, CHP head Ozgur Ozel said the party will organise a protest against Imamoglu's jailing in a different city every weekend, plus rallies in a different Istanbul district on Wednesday evenings.

The extraordinary congress was called after the CHP said authorities would appoint a trustee to run the party following a probe by prosecutors into alleged irregularities around its last congress in 2023.

The party organised big rallies in front of the Istanbul Municipality building every evening for a week after Imamoglu's detention, and held a large demonstration in the city's Maltepe district last weekend.

Hundreds of thousands of Turks, including university students nationwide, have heeded opposition calls to protest. Protests have been mostly peaceful but nearly 2,000 people have been detained and around 300 of them jailed pending trial.

Ozel also addressed a rally near the congress venue in Ankara after his re-election, repeating his party's call for early elections.

No general election is scheduled until 2028, but if Erdogan is to run again, parliament would need to back an earlier election since the president will have reached his limit by that date. Imamoglu is leading Erdogan in some opinion polls.

The CHP has also launched a symbolic signature campaign demanding freedom for Imamoglu and early elections. Ozel said that more than 7 million people have signed the CHP's petition.

Nearly 15 million people endorsed Imamoglu as the CHP's presidential candidate in an internal vote held on March 23, which was planned before his detention.

(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Jan Harvey)