Turkey Seeks Jail Sentence of Over 2,000 Years for Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu

Prosecutors accused Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul, of leading a criminal organization. The opposition called the case politically motivated.

A Turkish prosecutor accused the jailed mayor of Istanbul of running a criminal organization and called for him to be sentenced to more than 2,000 years in prison, according to an indictment presented in court on Tuesday.

The indictment accused the mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, of bribery and other crimes involving hundreds of other people that cost the Turkish state billions of dollars.

The charges are a significant escalation in a case that Turkey’s opposition has dismissed as a political hit job aimed at removing the top rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from politics.

Mr. Imamoglu did not immediately respond to the indictment. He previously denied corruption accusations against him and described them as politically motivated.

“This case is not legal, but entirely political,” Ozgur Ozel, the head of Turkey’s main opposition party, said on social media after the charges were announced.

He called the case and other legal actions against Mr. Imamoglu this year a “civilian coup” aimed at hobbling the opposition’s ability to challenge Mr. Erdogan. It was unclear when Mr. Imamoglu would be put on trial.

A rising star in Turkish politics, Mr. Imamoglu, 54, was detained in March, days before he was to be named the opposition’s presidential candidate. He has won mayoral elections in Istanbul three times since 2019, each time beating candidates backed by Mr. Erdogan.

Control of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city and economic powerhouse, is personal for Mr. Erdogan, who began his own political career as the city’s mayor in 1994 and served until 1998. His governing Justice and Development Party had retained control of the city until Mr. Imamoglu’s first victory.

The indictment presented by Istanbul’s lead prosecutor on Tuesday was nearly 4,000 pages long and, in addition to bribery, accused Mr. Imamoglu of money laundering, fraud and other offenses. More than 400 other suspects were accused of complicity in what the prosecutor described as a vast criminal enterprise. The document included an organizational chart with Mr. Imamoglu at the head.

The indictment said the organization had squeezed the city “like the arms of an octopus,” a phrase that Mr. Erdogan has also used.

Critics have long accused the president, Turkey’s predominant politician for more than two decades, of using Turkey’s courts, security services and news media to cement his rule and erode Turkish democracy.

“Who wrote this indictment, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan?” Ali Mahir Basarir, an opposition lawmaker, said in Parliament on Tuesday, adding that democracy was under threat.

Mr. Erdogan’s term ends in 2028, and the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, has said that Mr. Imamoglu will be its candidate. Mr. Erdogan, 71, can legally run only if the election is held early or the Constitution is amended. He has not said whether he intends to seek another term.

Mr. Imamoglu has been detained for investigation on corruption charges. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Turkey in March to oppose his arrest.

The government has since arrested hundreds of other opposition officials and activists, including elected mayors, on related charges.

In addition to the indictment on Tuesday, Mr. Imamoglu faces other cases that could bar him from politics. And the day before his arrest, Istanbul University voided his diploma, citing an irregular procedure more than three decades before. Turkey’s Constitution stipulates that the president must have completed higher education.

The mayor said at the time that he would contest the university’s ruling.

“I stand tall,” he wrote on social media. “I will never bow.”

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