April 19 (UPI) — Trials started in İstanbul for 189 people, including students, journalists and lawyers, for their involvement in protests in March against the Turkish government spurred on by the arrest of the city’s mayor.

The Istanbul prosecutor’s office said it plans to put 819 people on trial in 20 criminal investigations after police detained nearly 2,000 people in the protests between March 19 to 26, with the first mass trials starting Friday.

The opposition Republican People’s Party, which organized the events, said than 2.2 million people demonstrated in support of the mayor of Turkey’s largest city, the BBC reported.

Ekrem İmamoglu, İstanbul’s mayor and opposition candidate to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was arrested on March 19 of corruption charges. İmamoglu wants to run for president in 2028 against Erdoğan.

Imamoglu and his party said the charges against him are politically motivated, as the ruling Justice and Development Party has governed Turkey since 2002, with Erdogan as prime minister and then president since 2003.

Of the arrests, 650 were accused of attending peaceful protests on March 27 after the ban ended. Protests have continued this month.

Arrested protesters have been accused of taking part in illegal protests and failing to obey orders to disperse. Video footage verified by Human Rights Watch shows the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to control the demonstrators.

Among the arrests, 107 are charged only with participating in unauthorized demonstrations and failure to disperse. Other offenses include carrying a weapon, covering their faces to hide their identity and incitement to commit a crime. There are also eight journalists on trial.

All but about 50 students remain in detention, according to information provided by Parents Solidarity Network to BBC Turkish.

The government has banned public gatherings and penalties for doing so range from six months to five years in prison, according to Human Rights Watch.

“Given the glaring absence of evidence, it is hard not to conclude that the intended purpose of these rushed trials is to send a warning against exercising the rights to peaceful protest or free expression,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The prosecutor should be calling for these cases to be dropped unless there is direct and substantive evidence that particular individuals committed specific crimes.”

Supporters, including family members, journalists, university lecturers and lawmakers from the opposition party, appeared in two courtrooms in the mass hearings.

“We have no fear, we are not the ones who should be afraid,” a second-year student from Mimar Sinan University in Instanbul told the BBC.