ANKARA: Turkish authorities detained on Thursday a lawyer for jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, President Tayyip Erdogan`s biggest political rival.

Imamoglu, who leads Erdogan in some polls, was jailed on Sunday pending trial on graft allegations, provoking the largest anti-government protests in a decade that led to mass arrests nationwide.

Mehmet Pehlivan, a lawyer who defended Imamoglu in the latest investigation, was detained `for fabricated reasons`, Turan Taskin Ozer, an MP from the opposition said in a post on X.

Meanwhile, the US secretary of state said on Friday that he had communicated Washington`s concerns over arrests and crackdown on protesters to Turkish authorities.

`We`re watching, we`ve expressed concern, we don`t like to see instability like that in the governance of any country that`s such a close ally, especially,` Rubio told reporters on an aeroplane returning to Washington.

Private broadcaster Haberturk reported that the lawyer was detained on charges of `laundering assets derived from a criminal act`.

Imamoglu, who has been temporarily dismissed from his job because of the case, demanded the immediate release of his lawyer.

`As if the coup on democracy wasn`t enough, they can`t stand the victims of this coup defending themselves,` Imamoglu said on X.

Imamoglu`s CHP, other opposition parties, rights groups and Western powers have all said the case against the mayor was a politicised effort to eliminate a potential electoral threat to Erdogan.

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

Two journalists detained Separately, two journalists who covered the anti-government protests in Istanbul were detained early on Friday, the Journalists` Union of Turkiye said.

The detention of the journalists came a day after a Turkish court freed seven other journalists, including an Agence France-Presse photojournalist Yasin Akgul, who were earlier jailed for `attending an illegal march` while covering last week`s mass protests.Agencies