Ekrem Imamoglu was the mayor of Istanbul from 2019 until his removal, and the opposition's leading presidential candidate in Turkey. He was arrested on March 19th 2025 on what The Economist described as trumped-up charges, including corruption and aiding terrorists, along with dozens of his associates, on the orders of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. On October 27th 2025 the authorities issued new arrest warrants on suspicion of espionage against Mr Imamoglu and his former campaign director. When he appeared in court in September to hear charges related to his university diploma, his lawyer had to join the hearing via video link—he too had been arrested, and was speaking from prison. 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 before being elected. By locking up Imamoglu, 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 Imamoglu's account, which has nearly 10m followers, after a government request.
On November 11th 2025 prosecutors formally indicted Imamoglu on 3,900 pages' worth of charges. He had by then spent nine months behind bars. He faces up to 2,532 years in prison. Erdogan appointed the prosecutor who oversaw the investigation as his justice minister.
Imamoglu's trial began on March 9th 2026 inside a vast prison courtroom, with more than 400 defendants, some of whom had spent 11 months behind bars. 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.
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