The Istanbul mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu will stand trial on March 9, 2026, as the central defendant in a politically motivated mass corruption prosecution, Human Rights Watch said today. Most of the 407 defendants worked for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
İmamoğlu has spent a year in detention during investigations and prosecutions targeting elected officials from the party with which he is affiliated, the Republican People's Party (CHP), Türkiye's main opposition party. A court ordered his detention on the day party members selected him as their presidential candidate. Human Rights Watch issued a timeline setting out the sequence of government moves corroborating concerns that the cases targeting İmamoğlu and the party are politically motivated.
"The trial of Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu follows more than a year of weaponizing the criminal justice system against his party and other CHP elected officials while he sits in jail," said Benjamin Ward, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights watch, "Looking at these cases as a whole, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that prosecutors are trying to remove İmamoğlu from politics and discredit his party in ways that undermine democracy."
Human Rights Watch interviewed lawyers for the defendants, examined legal documents and public statements by the İstanbul public prosecutor's office, and verified media reports. Researchers also analyzed presidential statements about İmamoğlu and other CHP officials. The timeline of events created illustrates the scale since late 2024 of corruption and terrorism investigations that target CHP mayors and municipalities in Istanbul and other major cities, alongside efforts through the courts to discredit the national leadership of the CHP.
İmamoğlu faces allegations that he used the cover of his public office from 2014 to 2025 to establish what the prosecution calls "the İmamoğlu criminal organization for illicit gain," with the aim of enriching himself and enabling "the organization's capture of the [Republican People's] Party" and his election as president of Türkiye. If convicted on all counts, İmamoğlu could face a prison term of up to 1929 years.
Similar to many other politically motivated trials in Türkiye, the bulk of the evidence consists of statements by 15 witnesses whose identities are withheld from the defense-"secret witnesses" - and from among 76 defendants in the trial who have agreed to testify in exchange for a possibly reduced sentence.
Reliance on such evidence, along with prejudicial statements by prosecutors and Turkish President Erdoğan about İmamoğlu and the party, undermines İmamoğlu's right to a fair trial, Human Rights Watch said. The jailing of İmamoğlu's defense lawyer as a defendant in the case, the large number of defendants, and the complexity of the proceedings all contribute to serious fair trial concerns.
In the March 2024 local elections, CHP received 37.8 percent of the vote nationally, surpassing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), which received 35.5 percent and lost its lead for the first time in 22 years.
Investigations against the CHP began in Istanbul after the October 2024 appointment of Deputy Justice Minister Akın Gürlek as Istanbul chief public prosecutor. On February 10, 2026, on completion of the investigations into İmamoğlu, Gürlek was appointed justice minister. Gürlek's successive appointments highlight the flagrant nature of government influence over prosecutorial and judicial appointments and decision making in Türkiye, Human Rights Watch said.
The Istanbul public prosecutor's office's investigation coincided with the mayor's political rise. On February 22, 2025, the day after İmamoğlu announced his presidential candidacy and officially submitted his application to the CHP, the Istanbul public prosecutor's office opened an investigation into an allegation that İmamoğlu's university diploma-a requirement for presidential candidacy-had been falsified.
On March 18, 2025, four days before party members were due to select him, Istanbul University cancelled the diploma, and the Istanbul public prosecutor's office ordered İmamoğlu's arrest on March 19 in connection with an organized crime and corruption investigation and for terrorism links. A court ordered his detention on suspicion of organized crime and corruption on March 23, the day his party was due to confirm his presidential candidacy.
In October, the Istanbul public prosecutor's office began a third investigation against İmamoğlu for espionage, alleging he had leaked data about voters to foreign countries, and a court also ordered his detention in this separate investigation. On February 4, 2026, he was indicted for espionage, with three others, and faces a 15-20 year prison term if convicted.
In addition to the cases against İmamoğlu, legal processes challenging the validity of CHP leadership elections at party congresses, and the detention and removal of CHP mayors in other Istanbul districts and in major cities like Adana and Antalya, undermine the ability of the CHP to operate effectively as an opposition party to compete with the ruling Justice and Development Party-Nationalist Action Party (AKP-MHP) coalition in future presidential, parliamentary and local elections.
This impact strongly suggests that the detention of İmamoğlu and other elected mayors, as well as the criminal proceedings brought against them, have an improper purpose and violate the safeguards in article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits states from using restrictions on rights for purposes other than those for which they were intended. The cases also raise concerns about the Turkish authorities' interference with the rights to political participation, to freedom of expression, and to a fair trial.
Independent TV news channels perceived as being close to the political opposition have faced fines, broadcast bans, investigations, and detentions of journalists for their critical news coverage of the arrest of İmamoğlu and the crackdown on the opposition.
"Opposition parties and politicians that can function freely are a crucial element of a democratic system and ensure voters have a real choice in free and fair elections," Ward said. "With the president declaring the guilt of his rivals, prosecutors jailing and seeking to disqualify İmamoğlu and other elected officials, and a barrage of cases all against one party, the democratic process in Türkiye has never looked at greater risk."
