The sentence demanded in the case of jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is 2,430 years

The mayor strongly rejects the charges, calling [them] a compilation of lies, allegedly built under coercion

Originally published on Global Voices

On November 25, an Istanbul court accepted the indictment against jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The case will now proceed to trial; İmamoğlu has already spent close to eight months in detention. His indictment represents the most expansive set of charges ever brought against a municipal leader in Istanbul.

İmamoğlu's March 2025 arrest, which sparked countrywide protests, followed the arrests of dozens of others, among them municipal staff and businesspeople. A few days after he was detained, the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) declared him as its candidate for the 2028 presidential election.

Since becoming İstanbul's mayor in 2019, İmamoğlu has emerged as a prominent politician and was widely regarded as a political rival to incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The indictment

On November 11, prosecutors in Turkey demanded a prison sentence of up to 2,430 years for İmamoğlu. The mayor has been charged with 142 separate criminal offences. The indictment — almost 4,000 pages long — paints him as the “founder and leader” of a criminal organisation allegedly embedded within the municipal structure.

According to the prosecutor's office, the charges include establishing and leading a criminal organisation; multiple counts of bribery, money laundering, fraud, embezzlement, extortion, and rigging public tenders. As a leader of the alleged network, he is being held liable for offences committed by others under the umbrella of that organisation, meaning that many criminal acts attributed to others implicate him too. Alongside İmamoğlu, The file names a total of 402 suspects (105 are currently in pretrial detention, 170 are under judicial control, seven are wanted on arrest warrants, and five are listed as complainants), including dozens of senior municipal officials and business associates. The indictment also details an alleged pattern of misuse of municipal authority and public funds over years, from skewed contract awards to improper financial flows tied to the network’s operations.

Rejection of the charges

The mayor strongly rejects the charges, calling the indictment a compilation of lies, allegedly built under coercion. He has also called on the authorities to broadcast the trial live, saying on social media, “Let the public witness your lies and slanders. Trust in the conscience of society and the people’s sense of justice for once. Let the people decide: are we the criminals, or those running this unlawful investigation?”

The opposition CHP, which İmamoğlu represents, has condemned the case as politically driven, arguing the timing and scope are aimed at sidelining a major political opponent. “This case is not legal, it is entirely political. Its purpose is to stop the Republican People’s party (CHP), which came first in the last local elections, and to block its presidential candidate,” said party leader Özgür Özel on X when the indictment was announced.

Procedural flaw

According to Ömer Faruk Eminağaoğlu, former president of the Judges and Prosecutors Association (YARSAV) and retired Court of Cassation judge, that indictment — which was publicized prior to being sent and accepted by the court — was a violation of existing laws: “Procedurally, confidentiality continues until the indictment is accepted or the 15-day acceptance period expires, after which the public prosecution is considered to have been initiated.”

“There’s no legal explanation for this,” added Eminağaoğlu. “By sharing the indictment with the press despite knowing all this, the prosecutor is attempting to shape public opinion in advance. This demonstrates a legal violation from the very start.” He also outlined several other violations committed by Chief Prosecutor Akın Gürlek by announcing the indictment at a press conference.

Political implications

The indictment also holds implications for the opposition CHP. In an interview with TurkeyRecap, Seren Selvin Korkmaz, co-director of the İstanPol Institute and Mercator-IPC Fellow at the İstanbul Policy Center, explained that — as political trials go in Turkey — the “long and drawn-out process” makes the party and its leadership “feel constantly at risk and insecure.” Secondly, he said, it “confines the CHP to a defensive posture, limiting its ability to focus on policymaking and political agenda-setting. As a result, instead of debating its own policies and solutions, the party is portrayed as being trapped in a ‘resistance mode,’ which is precisely what the government intends.”

As the legal process against İmamoğlu formally advances with the court’s acceptance of the indictment, the scale of the investigation — as well as the reactions from both İmamoğlu and the CHP — now set the stage for the next phase of proceedings. Meanwhile, concerns raised around the accuracy of the indictment remain unaddressed as trial preparations continue.

News Desk

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