{"id":30550,"date":"2026-03-09T07:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T11:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=30550"},"modified":"2026-03-09T07:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T11:48:08","slug":"istanbuls-ex-mayor-to-stand-trial-on-corruption-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2026\/03\/09\/istanbuls-ex-mayor-to-stand-trial-on-corruption-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Istanbul&#8217;s ex-mayor to stand trial on corruption charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ssrcss-vxwoax-ComponentWrapper e1aon0op1\" data-block=\"text\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-126h8e-Spacer e1aon0op0\">\n<div data-testid=\"rich-text\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-nqezkk-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">The former mayor of Istanbul is due to become the central defendant in a mass corruption trial that<\/b><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">\u00a0<\/b><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">his opposition party and rights groups say is politically motivated.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ekrem Imamoglu, 55, faces more than 140 charges including corruption and running a criminal organisation. Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of up to 2,430 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He and his Republican People&#8217;s Party (CHP) deny any wrongdoing. They accuse Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his allies of launching a crackdown over the leader&#8217;s decline in popularity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Prior to the trial, which begins on Monday, Imamoglu was widely seen as one of the few politicians capable of defeating Erdogan, who has been at the top of Turkish politics since 2003.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-vxwoax-ComponentWrapper e1aon0op1\" data-block=\"text\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-126h8e-Spacer e1aon0op0\">\n<div data-testid=\"rich-text\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-nqezkk-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Imamoglu struck a defiant tone ahead of the trial, in comments given to news agency Reuters by his legal team last month, urging Erdogan to call elections immediately.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Another 407 of Imamoglu&#8217;s supporters have also been put on trial, accused of running a criminal corruption network headed by the opposition figure, who prosecutors describe as its &#8220;founder and leader&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The former mayor was arrested in March last year on the day he was named as the leader of the CHP and its presidential candidate for 2028. He has been held at the Marmara prison complex ever since, where his trial is due to take place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">His detention triggered the country&#8217;s largest street protests in more than a decade, followed by hundreds of arrests and a police crackdown.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-vxwoax-ComponentWrapper e1aon0op1\" data-block=\"links\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-126h8e-Spacer e1aon0op0\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1gccci3-Stack e1y4nx260\">\n<ul class=\"ssrcss-94r6ik-Stack e1y4nx260\" role=\"list\">\n<li class=\"ssrcss-qzx51b-LinkItem e3eyuya1\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1gccci3-Stack e1y4nx260\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-ire9v9-LinkHeadline e3eyuya4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c4g0ylrmy1yo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span aria-hidden=\"false\">Who is Turkish opposition leader Ekrem Imamoglu?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ssrcss-qzx51b-LinkItem e3eyuya1\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1gccci3-Stack e1y4nx260\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-ire9v9-LinkHeadline e3eyuya4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cvgve4q99d5o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span aria-hidden=\"false\">Turkey moves to silence jailed Erdogan rival by blocking account on X<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-vxwoax-ComponentWrapper e1aon0op1\" data-block=\"text\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-126h8e-Spacer e1aon0op0\">\n<div data-testid=\"rich-text\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-nqezkk-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Apart from the corruption case, prosecutors have accused him of a raft of other offences including espionage and forging his university degree, a qualification he would need to become president and\u00a0<a class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c0egjvj8vdro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">that has since been annulled<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Turkish authorities deny that the judiciary is being used as a political tool.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But the trial has been strongly criticised by rights groups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The trial of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu follows more than a year of weaponising the criminal justice system against his party and other CHP elected officials while he sits in jail,&#8221; Benjamin Ward, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Looking at these cases as a whole, it&#8217;s hard to avoid the conclusion that prosecutors are trying to remove Imamoglu from politics and discredit his party in ways that undermine democracy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Amnesty International called the charges brought against Imamoglu &#8220;absurd&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This politically motivated prosecution, which is based almost entirely on secret witness testimony, is riddled with serious international fair trial and rule of law issues,&#8221; Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty&#8217;s deputy director for Europe, said on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Turkish government has insisted that the judiciary operates independently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Justice Minister Akin Gurlek, the former chief prosecutor who led the investigation into Imamoglu, told reporters on Friday: &#8220;I simply did my duty as a public prosecutor. My conscience is clear.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Imamoglu was first elected as Istanbul&#8217;s mayor in 2019 and was re-elected in April 2024, defeating the governing AK Party candidate by almost a million votes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">His victory stunned Erdogan and his party, with many political commentators in Turkey describing it as the president&#8217;s &#8220;worst defeat ever&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c204ymjnn80o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">The former mayor of Istanbul is due to become the central defendant in a mass corruption trial that\u00a0his opposition party and rights groups say is politically motivated. Ekrem Imamoglu, 55, faces more than 140 charges <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2026\/03\/09\/istanbuls-ex-mayor-to-stand-trial-on-corruption-charges\/\" title=\"Istanbul&#8217;s ex-mayor to stand trial on corruption charges\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,109,2,6],"tags":[562,948,12306,12305,12304,6315,2663,1791,2520,12307,1102],"class_list":{"0":"post-30550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-human-rights","8":"category-headline","9":"category-news","10":"category-world","11":"tag-amnesty-international","12":"tag-corruption","13":"tag-corruption-network","14":"tag-criminal-organisation","15":"tag-ekrem-imamoglu","16":"tag-espionage","17":"tag-forgery","18":"tag-human-rights-watch","19":"tag-istanbul","20":"tag-marmara-prison","21":"tag-turkey","22":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30552,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30550\/revisions\/30552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}