Turkish prosecutors have filed a long-awaited indictment of İstanbul’s jailed mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, accusing him of leading a vast criminal network and committing 142 offenses that could result in a sentence of up to 2,430 years in prison, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported, citing court documents and official statements.
The nearly 4,000-page indictment targets the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was detained on March 19 and jailed four days later. It accuses İmamoğlu of offenses including running a criminal organization, bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, extortion and bid rigging.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday that the investigation into the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality had concluded with charges against 402 suspects, 105 of whom are in pretrial detention.
The document describes İmamoğlu as the “founder and leader of the organization,” while six other senior municipal officials — Fatih Keleş, Murat Ongun, Ertan Yıldız, Murat Gülibrahimoğlu, Adem Soytekin and Hüseyin Gün — are accused of acting as its managers.
Prosecutors allege that İmamoğlu exerted control over municipal companies and institutions “like an octopus,” an expression once used by Erdoğan, and that he bears responsibility not only for his own actions but also for the alleged crimes of his subordinates.
İmamoğlu, who is also the presidential candidate of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has “strongly denied all accusations” in statements to police and prosecutors.
The CHP has condemned the case as “purely political,” saying it aims to eliminate Erdoğan’s strongest challenger ahead of the next presidential election scheduled for 2028.
İmamoğlu’s arrest in March sparked nationwide outrage and mass demonstrations, marking Turkey’s most intense street protests since the 2013 Gezi Park movement.
CHP leader denounces charges as political persecution
At the same time the indictment was being disclosed on Tuesday, CHP leader Özgür Özel addressed his party’s parliamentary group, indirectly responding to the charges.
“Can someone be at the same time a fraud, a thief, a terrorist, a spy and guilty of election rigging?” Özel asked, accusing the government of orchestrating a smear campaign against the popular mayor.
“If you accuse an innocent person of one of these things, it’s a serious injustice. But if you accuse him of all of them, it’s a coverup. His only crime is being the next presidential candidate of this country,” he said.
Özel warned that Turkey’s judiciary is being weaponized for political purposes, saying, “If we do not stand up against this dark order today, there will soon be no judiciary left to defend anyone’s rights.”
In a later statement on X Özel condemned the indictment as “judicial interference,” saying the charges sought to prevent İmamoğlu from running for president in the 2028 election.
“This case is not legal, it is entirely political. Its purpose is to stop the Republican People’s Party [CHP], which came in first in the last [local] elections, and to block its presidential candidate,” he tweeted.
The CHP emerged as the most successful party in the local elections held in March 2024, while the AKP suffered its worst electoral defeat since 2002.
The indictment of İmamoğlu, who won the İstanbul mayoralty twice, in 2019 and 2024 despite heavy pressure from Erdoğan’s ruling bloc, has attracted comparisons to previous politically charged cases targeting opposition figures.
Human rights groups and Western officials have repeatedly accused Ankara of using the judiciary to silence dissent and sideline political rivals.
Critics say the case is widely seen as an attempt to criminalize one of Turkey’s most popular opposition leaders and a direct threat to what remains of political pluralism in the country.