Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday launched a second criminal investigation in as many days stemming from the corruption trial of jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, this time targeting people who took photographs or videos inside the courtroom and shared them on social media, Turkish Minute reported.
The Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said it had opened an ex-officio investigation under Article 286 of the Turkish Penal Code against individuals who “recorded audio or video without authorization during the prosecution proceedings” and shared the material online. The office instructed İstanbul police cybercrime units to identify the suspects.
The move came one day after the same prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel for remarks he made criticizing the three-judge panel presiding over İmamoğlu’s trial. Özel faces accusations of insulting the judges after he told journalists the panel lacked experience and alleged the court had been politically engineered.
Turkish law prohibits unauthorized recording in courtrooms, though enforcement is typically selective. The prosecution of people who share courtroom images on social media is relatively rare in routine criminal cases but more common in politically sensitive trials where authorities seek to control the narrative.
‘This has been political from the very beginning’
The second day of İmamoğlu’s trial on Monday featured an impassioned speech by the mayor, who told the court he is “troubled” by facing a potential 3,000-year sentence and accused prosecutors of running a politically motivated case designed to eliminate him from presidential contention.
“This is a political case,” İmamoğlu said from the defendant’s bench. “The mayor of 16 million İstanbul residents is here, before you, in your presence. A person whom 15.5 million people voted for as the presidential candidate of Turkey’s leading party; a person who received 25.1 million signatures.”
He was referring to an online primary held on the day of his March 19, 2025, arrest in which supporters cast symbolic votes to demonstrate his popularity despite his detention.
İmamoğlu criticized Akın Gürlek, the former İstanbul chief prosecutor who oversaw the investigation before being appointed justice minister in February. Gürlek had repeatedly used the metaphor of an “octopus” to describe İmamoğlu’s alleged criminal network — language that first appeared in speeches by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan months before the indictment was filed.
“It is clear how the prosecutor-turned-politician who is at the head of this case here, whom I call the ‘octopus arms,’ sent his regards to Ankara through the octopus’s arms,” İmamoğlu said, suggesting the prosecution was coordinated with the government.
He described his year in detention at Silivri Prison in a one-person cell, saying Monday’s hearing was the first time he had physically embraced his co-defendants since his arrest. “I am in isolation in a 12-square-meter space,” he said.
İmamoğlu appealed to the judges to release dozens of municipal employees and others held in pretrial detention as co-defendants, arguing that prosecutors’ real target is him alone. “This system’s problem is with me,” he said. “I am here, ready to manage this process with you, ready to defend myself. Let these people be tried without detention. Let mothers see their children. Let the sick receive their treatment.”
He closed by invoking the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the approaching Eid holiday. “Please, please… It is the blessed month of Ramadan. Eid is coming. Send my friends home,” he said.
İmamoğlu was detained on March 19, 2025, days before the CHP members selected him as their presidential candidate in a future election, along with more than 100 municipal employees and contractors in what prosecutors described as a sweeping corruption investigation.
He faces charges of leading a criminal organization, embezzlement, bid-rigging, bribery and espionage in an indictment prosecutors say documents a decade-long criminal enterprise operating within the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality. The indictment characterizes İmamoğlu’s lawful political ambitions as criminal in nature.
Of the 407 defendants named in the case, 107 are in pretrial detention. İmamoğlu’s lead defense attorney, Mehmet Pehlivan, was arrested as a co-defendant in June 2025 and is being tried alongside his client, a move Human Rights Watch called retaliation designed to restrict İmamoğlu’s ability to mount an effective defense.
The trial began March 9 and is expected to last 45 days of daily hearings. İmamoğlu, who became İstanbul mayor in 2019 after defeating President Erdoğan’s party in a historic upset, is widely regarded as the opposition’s strongest potential challenger to Erdoğan in the presidential election scheduled for 2028.
The CHP has faced a sweeping legal crackdown since winning the March 2024 local elections. Fifteen of its mayors are now in prison, most on corruption or terrorism charges that rights groups say are politically motivated. Courts have also invalidated CHP party congress results and replaced elected party officials with court-appointed administrators in multiple cities.
Prosecutors are seeking a combined sentence of up to 2,430 years in prison for İmamoğlu across all charges.
