Turkey on Monday blocked the X campaign account of İstanbul mayor and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, following the successive blockings of three previous accounts, the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD) reported.
After the İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment against İmamoğlu on November 11, the account restrictions followed in quick succession, with previous campaign accounts blocked on November 13, 14 and 15, under court orders citing the protection of “national security” and “public order.”
İmamoğlu has been using official campaign accounts to communicate with the public after his personal account was blocked in Turkey on April 24 for the same reasons. His international X account was subsequently restricted on May 9.
The nearly 4,000-page indictment accuses İmamoğlu of running what prosecutors call a “criminal organization” within the municipality and committing 142 offenses including bribery, fraud, bid rigging and money laundering. İmamoğlu has denied the accusations, calling the indictment “a pile of lies built through threats and coercion.”
The indictment names İmamoğlu and 401 other suspects, with prosecutors seeking a sentence of up to 2,430 years in prison for him. The charges have been widely criticized as politically motivated.
İmamoğlu, a senior member of the CHP, was detained on March 19 and arrested days later on corruption charges. His arrest, generally seen as targeting the biggest political rival to longtime President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2028 presidential election, sparked Turkey’s worst protests in the last decade.
İmamoğlu won İstanbul’s mayoral race in 2019 and defeated Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) again after the results of the first election were cancelled on the grounds of irregularities. He was named his party’s presidential candidate in March for the next general election scheduled for 2028. But his political future has been clouded by court cases and legal rulings that could bar him from politics and that his party and supporters say are designed to sideline him.
The pressure on the CHP and its municipalities has intensified since the arrest of İmamoğlu. According to a CHP report released in late October, 16 mayors from the party are jailed and 13 municipalities have been put under government-appointed trustees since its sweeping victory in the March 2024 local elections.
Turkey was ranked the lowest-scoring country in Europe for online freedoms, according to a report from the Washington-based Freedom House last October. Turkey has a score of 31 in a 100-point index, with scores based on a scale of 0 (least free) to 100 (most free) and is listed as “not free.”
