As Reuters reported as Monday’s hearing opened, Imamoglu, 55, is the chief suspect among more than 400 defendants tied to the municipality and faces charges that could add up to hundreds of years in prison. He has been held at Silivri for nearly a year, while the government rejects claims of political interference and says Turkey’s judiciary acts independently.
Why the Ekrem Imamoglu trial matters now
According to AP’s breakdown of the indictment, prosecutors accuse Imamoglu of leading a criminal group and tie him to 142 offenses in a 3,900-page case involving 402 suspects. If convicted on every count, he could face a cumulative sentence of 2,352 years, turning the trial into the single biggest legal threat yet to a politician long seen as the opposition’s best hope against Erdogan.
The corruption file is only part of his legal exposure. A January court setback over his university degree further damaged his chances because Turkish law requires presidential candidates to hold a degree. And a separate July conviction for insulting and threatening Istanbul’s chief prosecutor added another sentence, though that ruling still must pass appeals.
The political clock adds even more weight to the case. In a Reuters interview relayed through his legal team last month, Imamoglu said Erdogan should call early elections “now” and added, “He will run and he will lose. And Turkey will be the winner.” Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for 2028, but an earlier vote could become decisive if Erdogan wants another term under Turkey’s current term limits.
Supporters argue the case is meant to keep the opposition’s strongest campaigner trapped in court instead of on the trail. Officials reject that charge, and Justice Minister Akin Gurlek, who previously oversaw the investigations as Istanbul chief prosecutor, said, “I simply did my duty as a public prosecutor. My conscience is clear.”
How the case built over time
The current showdown did not begin with the 2025 arrests. In a 2022 ruling that sentenced him to jail and imposed a political ban, a Turkish court found Imamoglu guilty of insulting public officials over remarks tied to the rerun of Istanbul’s 2019 mayoral election. The sentence remains under appeal, but it marked the moment many Turks began to see the courts as central to the fight over succession politics.
Imamoglu’s profile only rose after his decisive re-election in Istanbul in the 2024 local vote, when the opposition handed Erdogan and the AK Party one of their sharpest electoral setbacks in years. The result reinforced his status as the rare figure in Turkish politics with both municipal power and national reach.
The break point came when a court formally jailed him pending trial in March 2025, triggering the largest wave of street demonstrations in Turkey in more than a decade. Monday’s courtroom session is the legal continuation of that crisis, not a fresh rupture.
For now, the Ekrem Imamoglu trial is both a criminal proceeding and a political stress test. A conviction could further weaken or even disqualify Erdogan’s top rival, but the drawn-out process may matter just as much, keeping Turkey’s opposition locked in court while the next presidential cycle draws closer.
