ISTANBUL: Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday charged Istanbul’s jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, with 142 offences in a massive legal case that could carry a penalty of more than 2,000 years in jail, court documents showed.

Imamoglu is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival and seen as the only politician capable of beating him at the ballot box, with his arrest in March sparking Turkiye’s worst bout of street unrest since 2013.

The nearly 4,000-page indictment charged the popular opposition mayor with a long string of offences, including running a criminal organisation, bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, extortion, and tender rigging.

State news agency Anadolu said the charges would carry a prison sentence of up to 2,430 years.

The head of Turkiye’s main opposition CHP lashed out at the indictment as a clear case of “judicial interference” aimed at blocking Imamoglu from running as their candidate for the 2028 presidential election.

“This case is not legal; it is entirely political. Its purpose is to stop the CHP, which came first in the last (local) elections, and to block its presidential candidate,” Ozgur Ozel wrote on X.

The indictment was filed on Tuesday, with a court date to be set later.

Mayor of Turkiye’s largest and richest city until his arrest, Imamoglu is facing a slew of allegations — including espionage and faking his university degree — which could see him banned from running in the 2028 presidential race.

According to the indictment, which names 402 suspects, Imamoglu allegedly headed a sprawling crime network over which he exerted his influence “like an octopus”.

‘Electoral fraudster?’

Before the indictment was published, Ozel had denounced the scope of the allegations.

“Can someone be both an electoral fraudster, hold a forged decree, and be a thief, a terrorist, and a spy all at the same time?” he asked.

“If you accused an innocent person of just one of these crimes, it would be a great injustice. But when you put all of them on one person, it’s a major crime… But his only crime is running for the presidency of this country!” Prosecutors also said they had filed papers with top appeals court against the CHP in what observers said could pave the way for the party’s closure.

In a separate statement, the prosecutor’s office confirmed it had informed the court about certain irregularities but denied reports it was seeking to have the party shut down.

The CHP has been under increasing pressure since it won control of Turkiye’s largest cities during local elections in March 2024.

Since then, 16 of its mayors have been jailed.

In October, an Ankara court dismissed a case challenging the legitimacy of the outcome of the party’s 2023 leadership primary, saying there was no legal basis to remove the current leadership from office.

The move could have unseated Ozel, who is himself facing several lawsuits, including one for insulting the president.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2025