Istanbul — Thousands of rallied in Istanbul Saturday in protest against the  arrest of mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey's worst street unrest in over a decade.

 

Rally organised at the call of Turkey's main opposition CHP over the jailing of city mayor and top party figure Ekrem Imamoglu whose arrest has sparked the country's biggest street demonstrations in over a decade. 

 

Among those at the protest were Imamoglu's wife Dilek and their children, along with his parents, an AFP correspondent said.

 

Opposition chief Ozel told French newspaper Le Monde the Saturday rallies would from now on be a weekly event in cities across Turkey, alongside a weekly Wednesday night demo in Istanbul.

 

Student groups have kept up their own protests, most of them masked, in the face of a police crackdown that has seen nearly 2,000 people arrested.

 

Eleven journalists were freed Thursday, among them AFP photographer Yasin Akgul.

 

Swedish journalist Joakim Medin, who flew into Turkey on Thursday to cover the demonstrations, was jailed on Friday, his employer Dagens ETC told AFP.

 

Reporters Without Borders' Turkey representative Erol Onderoglu said Medin had been charged with "insulting the president" -- a charge often use to silence Erdogan's critics.

 

"The judicial pressure systematically brought to bear on local journalists for a long time is now being brought to bear on their foreign colleagues," he told AFP.

 

Turkish authorities held BBC journalist Mark Lowen for 17 hours on Wednesday before deporting him for posing "a threat to public order", the broadcaster said.

 

Turkish officials said it was due to "a lack of accreditation".

 

Baris Altintas, co-director of MLSA, a legal NGO helping many of the detainees, told AFP the authorities "seem to be very determined on limiting coverage of the protests".