Turkish prosecutor seeks 2,000-year jail term for Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu in graft case

By Reuters 11 November 2025, 2:19 pm

6 Edit

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu of the main center-left opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) receives official mandate to serve five more years in Istanbul on April 3, 2024. (Yasin Akgul/ AFP/ File)

A Turkish prosecutor has demanded a potential prison sentence of more than 2,000 years for Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who has been jailed since March pending trial on corruption charges that he and his main opposition party deny.

The indictment, presented by the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor, accuses Imamoglu and 401 others of involvement in a graft network that allegedly caused 160 billion lira ($3.81 billion) in damages to the state over a 10-year period.

Hundreds of members and elected leaders of Imamoglu’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) face an array of corruption-related charges in a crackdown the party calls politicized and anti-democratic.