Istanbul's public prosecutor has filed charges against former mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. Erdoğan's opponent faces 142 counts that could result in over 2,500 years in prison.
Istanbul's public prosecutor has requested over 2,500 years in prison for the city's former mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu. Imamoglu is considered the main political opponent of President Recep Erdoğan and has been in prison since last March, facing numerous charges including corruption and embezzlement.
The former Istanbul mayor planned to run in Turkey's presidential election, scheduled for 2028. His arrest is widely accused of being purely political in nature, in a country where Erdoğan has stamped an increasingly authoritarian character on his presidency, silencing dissidents and opposition voices.
Until last March, Ekrem Imamoglu served as mayor of Istanbul, in his second term. A prominent figure of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and considered one of the main opponents of authoritarian president Recep Erdoğan, he had expressed his intention to stand in the 2028 presidential election, buoyed by growing public support.
On 19 March he was arrested along with around a hundred other people, including some of his aides, colleagues and journalists, as part of an operation carried out by police on the orders of the Turkish metropolis's public prosecutor. Imamoglu was charged with bid rigging, corruption and aiding the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which in recent months had renounced armed struggle and dissolved itself.
His arrest triggered widespread protests across the country, which were suppressed in an authoritarian manner through violence and mass arrests. In the meantime, Imamoglu received an initial sentence of one year and eight months for threatening a public official, after he accused Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Akin Gurlek, of targeting opposition members and acting in a politically motivated manner. And now, again at Gurlek's initiative, a massive dossier has been filed containing new charges against the former Istanbul mayor.
The case file against Imamoglu runs to 4,000 pages and he faces 142 counts. Among other things, he is accused of running a criminal organisation, corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, extortion and procurement manipulation, espionage and degree fraud. According to the prosecution, his activities caused approximately three billion euros in damages to the state, and 402 other individuals have been referred to trial alongside him.
If Imamoglu were to be convicted on all counts, he would face over 2,500 years in prison. "This case is not legal, it is purely 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," denounced Özgür Özel, secretary of the opposition party. He reiterated that Imamoglu will nonetheless stand as the party's candidate in the 2028 presidential election, and that the party will not bow to the political persecution being carried out by President Erdoğan.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) has seen its support grow considerably in Turkey in recent years, and this has gone hand in hand with mounting pressure against it. As many as 16 mayors from the party have already been arrested, and according to some observers, the charges filed by Istanbul's public prosecutor against Imamoglu and the hundreds of other individuals referred to trial could lead to the dissolution of the party.
