Suspended Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and 435 other defendants appeared before a judge on Thursday in the 87th hearing of a major corruption case involving the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB). Fifty-seven of the 436 defendants are in custody.

The investigation into alleged corruption involving Imamoglu, who was suspended from his post and arrested, was completed with a 3,809-page indictment filed on Nov. 11, 2025.

The indictment identifies Imamoglu as the alleged "leader of a criminal organization” and accuses him of offenses including forming an organization to commit crimes, bribery, money laundering, fraud against public institutions, unlawfully recording and obtaining personal data, concealing evidence, obstructing communications, damaging public property, publicly disseminating misleading information, extortion, bid-rigging, deliberate environmental pollution and violations of tax, forestry and mining laws.

Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of between 828 years, two months and 2,352 years for Imamoglu over 142 alleged acts.

Detained after missing hearing

At a hearing on Sept. 22, the court issued arrest warrants for five people who failed to appear to give testimony. Sinan Bolak, the son of Ümit Boyner and one of the defendants who was not in custody, was detained at Istanbul Airport after an arrest warrant was issued for him.