One year after arrest, Turkey’s opposition champion Imamoglu goes on trial

2026-03-09 - 08:34

Ekrem Imamoglu was jailed last year on March 19, on the day he was named the presidential candidate of the main opposition CHP. (EPA Images pic) ISTANBUL: Istanbul’s jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu went on trial Monday in a sprawling corruption case critics say is a politically motivated bid to scupper his chances of challenging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Arrested last year on March 19 and jailed ever since, Imamoglu appeared at Silivri court for the opening of a sweeping graft case in which prosecutors want him jailed for 2,430 years. Applause erupted as Imamoglu and scores of other defendants entered the packed courtroom as spectators shouted, “We are proud of you!” according to journalists tweeting from the scene. Imamoglu was jailed on the day he was named the presidential candidate of the main opposition CHP. He is widely seen as one of the only politicians capable of defeating Erdogan at the ballot box in elections due before mid-2028. Prosecutors have charged the 54-year-old with 142 offences, ranging from graft to embezzlement and espionage, alongside more than 400 other defendants, in an indictment that runs nearly 4,000 pages. They accuse him of running a sprawling criminal network over which he exerted influence “like an octopus”. With all protests banned within a one-kilometre radius of the courtroom, supporters gathered at a distance waving images of Imamoglu and more than a dozen other CHP detained mayors, an AFP correspondent at the scene said. “President Imamoglu!” they chanted. “The day will come when the tables are turned and AKP will be held accountable,” they shouted, referring to Erdogan’s ruling party. ‘Weaponised’ justice system The trial has been widely denounced by rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which both condemned the “weaponisation” of Turkey’s justice system to remove political opponents. “This prosecution bears the hallmarks of an attempt to intimidate political opponents of the government and silence wider dissent in the country,” said a statement from Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty’s deputy director for Europe. “This mass trial is the most extreme example of the disturbing weaponisation of Turkey’s justice system, whose independence has now been almost entirely hollowed out.” With the trial involving such a large number of defendants, the court authorities had started construction of a new courtroom especially for the trial, but it had not been completed on time, CHP officials said on Sunday. The court has limited the number of journalists covering the trial to 25, of whom five were international media representatives. At Monday’s hearing, a summary of the indictment will be read out and the court will decide on the time frame for hearing the case. Among those present in court were CHP leader Ozgur Ozel and Imamoglu’s wife Dilek, who told reporters at the scene their request for the trial to be broadcast live had been ignored. “We’re nervous and excited before the hearing. I visited him last week and his morale is quite good,” she said. Legal crackdown Since the CHP won a resounding victory in the March 2024 local elections against Erdogan’s ruling AKP, it has faced a sweeping legal crackdown. Fifteen of its mayors are now behind bars. Analysts say Imamoglu almost certainly will not be able to run in the next presidential race. Even if he were to be cleared of the graft charges, he is facing an even more significant legal obstacle: a lawsuit challenging the validity of his university degree – a constitutional requirement for presidential candidates. Should he be barred, political observers expect CHP leader Ozel to emerge as the likely candidate for the presidential race.