Hundreds of thousands of protesters filled Istanbul’s streets on Sunday for a fifth night of protest against the arrest of the Turkish president’s main rival.

Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul, was detained on Wednesday and formally arrested and jailed pending trial over corruption charges earlier today.

Police used pepper spray and fired rubber bullets into the crowd that gathered outside Istanbul’s city hall.

Reporting from Istanbul on Sunday evening, Sky News’ special correspondent Alex Crawford described the protests as “relatively peaceful” but said they were “the biggest protests Turkey has seen in more than a decade”.

The huge demonstrations have continued despite a ban on gatherings in Istanbul imposed this week – but many protesters hid their faces with masks.

Most protesters did not want to speak on camera as they were scared of being recognised, Crawford said, but “they feel their democracy is being eroded”.

She said questions remained over how long authorities would allow these protests to continue – and whether they will escalate into a real crisis for Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The protests intensified after Mr Imamoglu was charged on Sunday with running a criminal organisation, accepting bribes, extortion, illegally recording personal data and bid-rigging. A request to detain Mr Imamoglu on terror-related charges was denied.

Following the ruling, he was transferred to Silivri prison, west of Istanbul.

Mr Imamoglu has labelled all of the claims “unimaginable accusations and slanders”.

Many viewed his detention as a political move to remove him from the 2028 presidential race – deepening concerns over the country’s democracy and the rule of law.

The Turkish government denies Mr Imamoglu’s arrest was politically motivated and says the courts are independent.

Mr Erdogan has served as Turkey’s president since his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2003.

Its biggest opponent in the next election looks set to be the Republican People’s Party (CHP), which this weekend began holding a primary presidential election to endorse Mr Imamoglu, their only presidential candidate.

The party also set up solidarity boxes where non-members could show their support – and at the time of tonight’s protest, more than 13 million had done so, according to the CHP.

In a post on social media, Mr Imamoglu praised the result, saying the people had told Mr Erdogan: “Enough is enough.”

“That ballot box will arrive and the nation will deliver a slap to the administration it will never forget,” he said.

More from Sky News:
Pope returns home
Canadian PM calls snap election

Mr Imamoglu – who could be prevented from running for president if he is convicted – was one of 48 people jailed pending trial this weekend. The others being held include a key aide and two Istanbul district mayors.

While this week’s protests have largely been peaceful, there has been some violence in Istanbul, as well as other cities including Ankara and Izmir.

Clashes have seen police deploy water canons, tear gas and pepper spray at protestors, some of whom threw stones and fireworks at riot officers.

Turkey’s interior minister said 323 people were detained on Saturday evening over disturbances at protests.

Citrusdal is a seemingly idyllic farming town named after the fruit it grows. Nestled in a valley at the base of the Western Cape’s Cederberg mountains, it’s home to rows and rows of orange and lemon trees.

The tangerines in the orchards are still as green as the leaves. Harvest will come in July and August, then the fruit will be picked and boxed for export to the UK, Europe and the US.

But as tensions heighten between the South African government and Trump’s administration, this vital export may never land on US soil.

South Africa is one of the biggest exporters in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade agreement providing Sub-Saharan countries with preferential access to US markets through tariff-free imports.

AGOA is due for renewal at the end of September 2025 and is incredibly vulnerable to getting the axe from Mr Trump, as he imposes tariffs on his closest neighbours Canada and Mexico.

Here in Citrusdal, alarms are sounding as market experts recommend South Africa withdraws from AGOA willingly to offset risk, rather than face the storm in September.

Gerrit van der Merwe, chair of the Citrus Growers’ Association and managing director of ALG Estates, says he hopes an adult in the room will make the right decision.

“We take a step back, that’s a hit. Not just on the farmers but on all the community. If we are missing out on prosperity the slack will probably get picked up either by a citrus farmer in Peru or some farmer in Spain,” says Gerrit.

South Africa is the world’s second-largest exporter of citrus after Spain. Though only 9% of South African citrus goes to the US, a complete withdrawal of tariff-free access could impact thousands of jobs.

“AGOA is probably responsible for 35,000 jobs in the citrus industry in South Africa but also indirectly responsible for 25,000 jobs in the US for truck driving, repacking, running cold rooms and that type of thing. We have a 35 to 45% unemployment rate in South Africa. We need wins,” says Gerrit.

A black labourer on the back of a tractor waves as he drives by. On the edges of the farm, workers sit in the backs of farm wagons full of insect-infected oranges they cleared from the trees to keep them healthy.

They are working land that was acquired during the founding years of the Dutch occupation of the Cape from the 17th century and passed down 13 generations to Gerrit and his family.

The racialised legacy of land ownership was entrenched by apartheid rule during South Africa’s mining boom and remains the reality here. White people make up 7% of the population but own more than half the land.

A new land expropriation act signed by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa allows for the government to seize land in the public interest.

The bill is yet to be enacted but has drawn the ire of Mr Trump, who responded with an executive order calling the actions egregious and hateful towards “racially disfavoured landowners” and offered asylum to Afrikaners.

It is reported 67,000 farmers have shown interest in US asylum but Gerrit says that is not an option for the citrus growers in his association.

“I don’t think anybody is taking it seriously. You will always have a fringe in any society of 5 or 10% that will take it up and will carry that flag but most of the people I deal with love South Africa and would like to stay,” he says.

“We do feel a bit isolated about the fear-mongering because we don’t see it on a daily basis. We are not that security conscious on a daily basis.”

He adds: “I’m not exposed to the guys up north and I think that some people are in really tough situations.”

Read more:
South Africans with HIV left in turmoil
Trump threatens to stop SA funding

Up north, Wannie Scribante proudly shows us the security set-up protecting his small private farm.

His cameras have AI technology that spots the movement of people, and he shares stills of his black labourers as they work the edges of the farm.

He hasn’t had a single intrusion or theft since he set up the cameras three years ago but still feels threatened by squatters and the risk of land expropriation.

“I’m concerned that this has been pushed by a government that is not honest with us. Why do they write in expropriation without compensation? Then they tell me we’re not going to do that? It is silly to spend so much time on it and do a law if you’re not going to do that,” says Wannie.

Though Wannie does not believe the debunked claims of a white genocide being repeated by Elon Musk, he still appreciates the cover coming from the Oval Office after feeling ignored by the South African government.

“They say why don’t you talk to us? I mean we are trying to and they don’t listen. We don’t even get appointments. Now, suddenly someone else says it and it opens up the conversation of our problems that we have.”

I ask him if white South African farmers are being used to push an agenda.

“Most probably, yes.

“I think President Trump has things he is not happy about – the expropriation law, targeting, things like that – but I don’t think that is his biggest problem. I think his biggest problem is our government’s friendliness with their enemies.

“He is more worried about our ties to Hamas, Iran and China.”

Pope Francis is to be released from hospital tomorrow after receiving treatment for double pneumonia, but doctors insist he will also need at least two months of rest.

The 88-year-old pontiff has been at Gemelli Hospital in Rome for more than five weeks since being admitted for a severe respiratory infection on 14 February.

Dr Sergio Alfieri, the head of the team taking care of the Pope, told reporters: “Tomorrow [Sunday] the Holy Father will be discharged, that means he will return to the Santa Marta [his residence within the Vatican]”.

“During his hospitalisation, his clinical conditions presented very critical episodes, during which the Holy Father was in danger of losing his life.”

Dr Alfieri said the pontiff was now in a “stable clinical condition” but he would continue taking medication orally “for quite a long time”.

“It’s very important that he follow a period of convalescence and rest for at least two months,” he added.

The Vatican previously said he would appear from the window of his 10th floor hospital room on Sunday to offer a blessing.

A photo released by the Vatican last week showed the leader of the Catholic church celebrating Sunday mass in a hospital chapel.

The Vatican said in a statement that Pope Francis wanted to come to the hospital window around noon (11am UK time) on Sunday to give a greeting and blessing.

One senior cardinal said on Friday it could take time for the Pope to “relearn to speak” after using oxygen during his hospital stay.

Dr Sergio Alfieri addressed this, during a news conference on Saturday, pointing out that when someone has double pneumonia “the lungs are damaged”.

“They [lungs] have been damaged and breathing muscles have been strained. One of the first things that happens is that our voice diminishes… like when you use your voice too much”. But he insisted that, in time, the voice would return to normal.

Read more from Sky News:
King and Queen due to meet Pope
Pope records message from hospital

Despite the Pope’s discharge from hospital, there has been no update about his plans to meet the King and Queen.

They are due to make a state visit to the Vatican on 8 April.

But doctors confirmed on Saturday they had prescribed two months of convalescence and had advised him against taking any meetings with large groups or that take special effort.

Doctors at the facility recently said he is no longer in a critical condition – having been diagnosed with a complex bacterial, viral and fungal respiratory tract infection and then double pneumonia.

It marks the most serious health crisis of his 12-year papacy and the longest he has been out of public view since his election as pontiff in 2013.