Ekrem Imamoglu was the mayor of Istanbul from 2019 until his removal, and the opposition's leading presidential candidate in Turkey. He was arrested in March 2025 on what The Economist described as trumped-up charges, including corruption and aiding terrorists, on the orders of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Later the authorities added charges of espionage. The terrorism accusation was based on claims that city-council candidates on the CHP's electoral list had links to a platform allegedly affiliated with the PKK, despite the candidates having been vetted and approved by the Supreme Election Council. By locking up Mr Imamoglu, Mr Erdogan removed his most serious challenger from the next presidential elections. Hundreds of thousands of young Turks took to the streets in response, in the biggest protests Turkey had seen for more than a decade; many were detained. X blocked Mr Imamoglu's account, which has nearly 10m followers, after a government request.
Prosecutors formally indicted Mr Imamoglu on 3,900 pages' worth of charges, and he faces up to 2,532 years in prison. Mr Erdogan appointed the prosecutor who oversaw the investigation as his justice minister.
Mr Imamoglu's trial began in March 2026 inside a vast prison courtroom, with more than 400 defendants. He was nominated by the CHP as its presidential candidate shortly after his arrest. There is little chance he can run in the presidential election due in 2028.
In America, any boy may become president and I suppose that's just one of the risks he takes.