Istanbul’s jailed mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu appeared in court on March 9 for the first hearing in a sweeping corruption case, with tensions running high from the outset due to friction with the panel of judges.
Arrested on March 19 last year and held in pre-trial arrest ever since, İmamoğlu attended the hearing at the Silivri courthouse for the opening session of a sprawling graft trial in which prosecutors are seeking a combined prison sentence of 2,430 years.
The hearing, which began around 11:00 a.m. (0800 GMT), quickly descended into turmoil. Proceedings were suspended after barely 15 minutes when the presiding judge halted the session. The judge did not allow İmamoğlu to continue speaking, citing courtroom order, and subsequently left the chamber.
The session was paused after the court panel requested the courtroom to be emptied. It resumed in the early afternoon.
Among those attending the hearing were main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel, as well as İmamoğlu’s wife Dilek İmamoğlu and several senior party officials. According to pro-opposition broadcaster Halk TV, many of them refused to leave the courtroom when asked to do so.
Prosecutors have charged the 54-year-old with 142 separate offences, including graft and embezzlement, alongside more than 400 other defendants. The indictment spans nearly 4,000 pages.
They accuse İmamoğlu of orchestrating an extensive criminal network over which he allegedly exerted influence “like an octopus.”
Security measures were tight around the courthouse, with all protests banned within a one-kilometer radius. Nevertheless, supporters gathered at a distance, waving posters of İmamoğlu and more than a dozen detained CHP mayors.
Given the unusually large number of defendants, court authorities began constructing a new courtroom specifically for the trial, but the facility was not completed in time.
During the March 9 session, the court is expected to hear a summary of the indictment and determine the timetable for the proceedings.
Over recent months, authorities have launched a series of operations targeting several municipalities run by the CHP as part of the same investigation.
The CHP maintains that the arrest of İmamoğlu and the legal actions against its mayors are politically motivated. The party had previously named İmamoğlu as its presidential candidate for the next elections, and many observers argue that the multiple investigations targeting the popular political figure are linked to this.
His arrest nearly a year ago triggered some of Türkiye’s largest street protests in more than a decade and was followed by mounting legal pressure on the CHP.
To date, 15 CHP mayors remain behind bars.
