Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday charged Istanbul’s jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu with 142 offences that could carry a penalty of hundreds of years in prison, court documents showed.
The nearly 4,000-page indictment charges the popular opposition mayor, who was arrested on March 19, with offences including running a criminal organisation, bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, extortion and tender rigging.
State news agency Anadolu said prosecutors were asking for prison sentences that could amount to up to 2,430 years behind bars.
The arrest of Imamoglu, the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prompted outrage from the main opposition CHP party and widespread demonstrations across Turkey in the country’s worst bout of street unrest since 2013.
The indictment was filed with an Istanbul court on Tuesday, with a court date to be set later.
Imamoglu, who was mayor of Turkey’s largest city until his arrest, is facing a slew of legal allegations that include espionage and faking his university degree, which could ban him from running as president in elections set for 2028.
According to the indictment, which names 402 suspects, Imamoglu allegedly headed of a sprawling crime network over which he exerted his influence “like an octopus”.
– ‘Electoral fraudster?’ –
In an address to parliament on Tuesday, CHP head Ozgur Ozel said Imamoglu would be the party’s candidate in the next presidential vote.
“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 said several hours before the indictment was released.
“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!” he said.
Also in the indictment, prosecutors said they had filed papers with Turkey’s top appeals court against the CHP in what observers said could pave the way for the party’s closure.
But in a separate statement, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office confirmed it 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 Turkey’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 a number of lawsuits including one for insulting the president.
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