Istanbul’s opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main rival, is officially on trial for 142 offences, according to an indictment published by the city’s prosecutor’s office on Tuesday, November 11.
According to Turkish media, Ekrem Imamoglu, arrested in March for corruption and considered by a Turkish court to be the head of a criminal organization, risks being imprisoned for up to 2,340 years.
The jailed mayor of Turkey’s largest city, the main opposition party’s candidate in the next presidential election, is charged specifically with fraud, money laundering and tender rigging, according to a more than 3,700-page indictment. Ekrem Imamoglu has denied all accusations against him since his arrest.
Losses of 3.3 billion euros to the Turkish state
Four hundred and two suspects accused of forming a criminal organization were targeted for indictment. Among them was a close collaborator of the Mayor of Istanbul, who was arrested at the same time as him on March 19.
Istanbul Prosecutor General, who described this network as “octopus”said on Tuesday that the latter caused losses of 160 billion Turkish liras (3.3 billion euros) to the Turkish state over a decade.
The arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, described as “cout d’etat” by the CHP, has sparked an unprecedented wave of protests in Turkey since 2013. As part of the same investigation, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday that it wanted to pursue the CHP over the allegations. “violation of the Constitution”claimed that voter lists were distributed illegally by members of a network allegedly led by Imamoglu.
