Almost one year after his arrest, Istanbul’s former mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu, will make his first appearance at the hearing of a sprawling corruption case. The popular figure of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will join more than 400 defendants in the trial in Istanbul on Monday.
Dubbed “corruption of the century” by some Turkish media outlets, Imamoğlu and his associates at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) are accused of involvement in 143 acts of bribery and corruption. Their actions cost the public TL 161 billion ($3.65 billion), according to the prosecutors.
The businessman-turned-mayor faces prison terms up to 2,352 years for multiple instances of the corruption that mainly revolves around bribery accusations from businesspeople in exchange of operating, construction permits and accusations of widespread rigging in lucrative tenders of the municipality.
The trial, which is expected to take about two months before the court reaches a verdict or decides on postponing it to another date, will take place inside a courtroom in the Marmara courthouse-prison complex where Imamoğlu and others are being held since March 2025.
In their indictment of 3,806 pages, prosecutors named Imamoğlu as the leader of a criminal ring thriving on corruption. The court will question the mayor, the municipal bureaucrats and people doing business with the municipality on accusations of taking luxury residences as bribes and stacks of cash stored in a currency exchange office, which were reportedly illicit gains of the “Imamoğlu gang” and alleged secret transfer of bribe money from lucrative excavation businesses to abroad. Imamoğlu is among the 105 defendants who are in pre-trial custody while seven defendants remain at large. Other defendants were earlier released pending trial.
Along with corruption accusations, Imamoğlu faces charges of illegally obtaining personal data, money laundering and deliberate pollution of environment, related to other crimes he is accused of, such as alleged sale of personal information of Istanbul’s residents through a municipality app.
The indictment says Imamoğlu’s criminal organization was similar to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which is notorious for its infiltration into public institutions. Prosecutors say a network similar to FETÖ’s cells was established by Imamoğlu and others at the Istanbul municipality and district municipalities (also run by the CHP) of Türkiye’s most populated city. The suspects used counter-intelligence tactics to avoid detection, the prosecutors say.
The mayor both sought personal enrichment and buying his way toward the full control of the CHP, the indictment says. Imamoğlu was picked as a future presidential candidate of the CHP after his arrest. Prior to an intra-party election in the CHP in 2023, Imamoğlu was caught red-handed as he lobbied for the ouster of the party’s chair, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. He is named in another trial on alleged vote-buying in the intra-party election where he and others are accused of offering cash to delegates in exchange for votes for the Kılıçdaroğlu rival Özgür Özel. The “personal enrichment” cited by prosecutors includes three villas in Istanbul’s upscale Emirgan neighborhood worth TL 1.5 billion, which were not included in declaration of assets by mayoral candidates at the elections. The indictment also includes witness statements on a private jet, which made multiple flights abroad to carry cash accumulated by Imamoğlu’s criminal ring to London. The flights between 2022 and 2025 were arranged by Murat Gülibrahimoğlu, a fugitive defendant in the case.
The indictment reveals that Taç Döviz, a firm named in a separate money laundering investigation, acted as a "custodian" for the criminal proceeds of the ring led by Imamoğlu.
Although the mayor is facing a slew of legal cases, Monday's trial is by far the biggest. In a separate case, Imamoğlu is facing an even more significant legal obstacle: a lawsuit challenging the validity of his university degree, a constitutional requirement for presidential candidates.
Imamoğlu maintained his innocence in remarks made to public before the trial began, though he did not offer an elaborate defense, apparently saving it for the trial. His party also claims that the trial is politically motivated, pointing to the arrests of other CHP mayors before and after Imamoğlu’s arrest. In all cases, mayors were arrested on charges of corruption and some cases were directly linked to Imamoğlu himself. The main opposition staged rallies every evening in a different city after Imamoğlu’s arrest, to protest it and other cases.
Some suspects who collaborated with authorities as part of a plea deal claimed Imamoğlu sought to fund his campaign for the presidency through bribes.
Ertan Yıldız, the former head of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s department overseeing the subsidiaries, was among those collaborating with authorities. Speaking to the Yeni Şafak newspaper in an interview published on Sunday, Yıldız detailed the “system” of corruption. “Imamoğlu always wanted to be president. It is not an evil goal but it matters how you try to achieve it. If Imamoğlu did not get himself into (this corruption), he would be a strong presidential contender. He did not have to do this, he did not have to be greedy,” he said.
Yıldız said Imamoğlu and his associates earned “resources” through lucrative tenders, especially on road maintenance and excavation. He said Gülibrahimoğlu was behind the usage of the vast Cebeci mining field for dumping construction leftovers. “This place was supposed to be run by a municipal subsidiary but was leased to another company and was unregulated. They launched tenders but the dumping was uncontrolled. They had a partnership of corruption, between Gülibrahimoğlu, Fatih Keleş and Ibrahim Bülbüllü,” he said, referring to other municipal figures.
“Overall, they had a lucrative system bringing in $150 million to 200 million yearly. They used to earn cash from minor tenders in the past but over time, they reaped more elsewhere,” he said, pointing out to reconstruction or construction permits at scenic Bosporus route of Istanbul. “They took bribes of $1 million for permits. All were delivered in bags,” he said.
He said Gülibrahimoğlu earned $10 million-20 million from the Cebeci mining field and when he objected to his schemes to funnel cash to his company, he complained. “But Imamoğlu supported him,” he claimed.
Digging deeper into an alleged criminal network run by Imamoğlu and expanding another investigation linked to a businessperson whom the district municipalities had awarded lucrative contracts, investigators launched further operations, rounding up municipal bureaucrats and other mayors throughout 2025.
