Prosecutors in Turkey published an indictment on Tuesday against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, widely considered the most popular candidate in the 2028 presidential election, charging him with nearly 150 crimes and requesting a 2,000-year prison sentence.
Imamoglu was arrested in March on dubious charges of corruption, including money laundering and association with organized crime, just days before the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) officially nominated him as their candidate in the presidential election. The indictment revealed on Tuesday accuses Imamoglu of leading a massive organized crime syndicate dedicated to personally enriching those involved. As is typical in the Turkish court system under Islamist strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the indictment also reportedly accused Imamoglu of seemingly random crimes such as “environmental pollution” and “disseminating misleading information.”
The Erdogan-friendly newspaper Daily Sabah reported that Imamoglu’s case — again, as has become typical in the Turkish judicial system — is being processed alongside that of hundreds of other people, apparently sharing evidence and accusations with minimal distinctions between the criminal charges.
“According to the statement released by the prosecutor’s office, the organized crime investigation bureau has prepared the indictment,” Sabah reported, “which involves 105 suspects currently under arrest, 170 under judicial control and seven with outstanding arrest warrants. Additionally, five individuals were listed as ‘complainant-suspects’ under judicial control.”
The extensive list of crimes prosecutors threw at Imamoglu reportedly includes: “establishing and leading a criminal organization… membership in a criminal organization… bribery… embezzlement… fraud against public institutions… money laundering… violations of the Tax Procedure Law… illegal data collection and dissemination… environmental pollution… public property damage… and violations of the Forest and Mining Laws.”
The CHP — a secularist opposition party started by the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk — condemned the indictment on Tuesday, describing it as the whim of the Erdogan regime and not a legitimate legal process.
“A handful of people who came to power through elections but do not want to leave through elections have dragged Turkey into the darkness of a major political and economic crisis by imprisoning their rivals they fear,” CHP leader Özgür Özel wrote in a statement. “This case is not legal; it is entirely political. Its purpose is to stop the Republican People’s Party, which came first in the last elections, and to obstruct its presidential candidate.”
“The coup plotters today have lost their minds to the extent of demanding the shutdown of the Republican People’s Party, the founding party of Turkey, which is registered in the name of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,” he denounced.
Police arrested Imamoglu in March after the Erdogan machine attempted to strip him of his mayoral victory in 2019. That year, Imamoglu defeated Erdogan’s hand-picked mayoral candidate, Binali Yıldırım, prompting the AKP to demand a second election. Imamoglu won that election by a higher margin than the first one.
The mayor’s arrest in March appeared timed to precede the CHP’s presidential nomination process. It prompted massive, chaotic protests throughout Istanbul, which led to over 1,000 arrests. The CHP nominated Imamoglu as its presidential candidate anyway, denouncing his arrest as a civil “coup” against the will of the Turkish people.
Later that month, Turkish police arrested Mehmet Pehlivan, Imamoglu’s attorney, on charges of money laundering, complicating his legal defense.
Erdogan has been in charge of the Turkish government since becoming prime minister in 2003. The past multiple rounds of presidential elections have prompted widespread accusations of electoral fraud and repression of opposition candidacies. In one of the most audacious acts of repression, in 2016, the Erdogan regime arrested Selahattin Demirtas, the leader and presidential candidate for the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). Demirtas ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign from prison in 2018 and remains behind bars to this day, accused of aiding “terrorists.” While some Erdogan allies have openly discussed potentially freeing the politician, no legal action has been taken that would indicate an imminent liberation for Demirtas.
The use of the judicial system against political opponents has attracted widespread criticism, and some mockery, of Erdogan around the world. In September, during the Turkish president’s visit to the White House, President Trump appeared to make light of the situation — pointing to Erdogan, who does not speak English, and telling reporters, “He knows about rigged elections better than anybody.”
In May, Erdogan told reporters he had “no interest in being re-elected or becoming a candidate again,” but did not specify if this meant he would not run in any subsequent presidential election or if he was suggesting doing away with presidential elections entirely.
