Sawt Falasteen - Landmark trial opens for Turkish opposition champion Imamoglu

But the hearing -- which began around 11:00 am (0800 GMT) -- got off to a bumpy start, with the judge suspending proceedings after barely 15 minutes.

Arrested on March 19 last year and jailed ever since, Imamoglu appeared at the Silivri court for the opening of a sweeping graft case in which prosecutors want him jailed for 2,430 years.

Cheers of "We are proud of you!" erupted from the gallery as he and scores of other defendants entered the courtroom for a trial involving more than 400 people, the mayor's team and journalists in the room wrote on X.

When the trial opened, the judge said Imamoglu would be one of the last to testify, prompting the mayor -- who is the principle accused -- to ask to speak sooner.

But the judge refused, drawing cries of "Shame, shame!" from the gallery.

Then when a defence lawyer asked why the order of witnesses had been leaked to a pro-government newspaper but not supplied to the defence team, the judge cleared the court and suspended the session.

It was due to resume in the early afternoon.

Imamoglu was jailed on the day he was named the presidential candidate of the main opposition CHP party.

He is widely seen as one of the only politicians capable of defeating Erdogan at the ballot box in national elections due before mid-2028.

- 'A conspiracy case' -

Among those at the hearing was CHP leader Ozgur Ozel and Imamoglu's wife Dilek, as well as other party officials, many of whom had refused to leave the courtroom, pro-opposition Halk TV said.

"This trial is a conspiratorial case. It is an attempted coup by Tayyip Erdogan against the next president and the next government," Ozel said as the trial began.

Prosecutors have charged 54-year-old Imamoglu with 142 offences, ranging from graft to embezzlement and espionage, alongside more than 400 other defendants, in an indictment that runs nearly 4,000 pages.

They accuse him of running a sprawling criminal network over which he exerted influence "like an octopus".

With all protests banned within a one-kilometre (0.6-mile) radius of the courthouse, supporters gathered at a distance at a CHP encampment by a mockup of Imamoglu's jail cell, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

"The day will come when the tables are turned and the AKP will be held accountable," they shouted, referring to Erdogan's ruling party, waving pictures of Imamoglu and 15 other CHP mayors who are also behind bars.

"If he had not announced his presidential candidacy, he would still be in office as mayor," said Kadim Tasbilek, a 58-year-old retiree, who denounced the trial as "a political coup".

"This case is political. I don't believe there's any corruption," agreed Hulya Ozturk, a 74-year-old pensioner.

- 'Weaponised' justice system -

The trial has been widely denounced by rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which both condemned the "weaponisation" of Turkey's justice system to remove political opponents.

"This prosecution bears the hallmarks of an attempt to intimidate political opponents of the government and silence wider dissent in the country," said Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty's deputy director for Europe.

With such a large trial, the authorities had started construction of a new custom-built courtroom but it had not been completed on time, CHP officials said on Sunday.

Since the CHP won a resounding victory in the March 2024 local elections against Erdogan's AKP, it has faced a sweeping legal crackdown.

Analysts say Imamoglu almost certainly will not be able to run in the next presidential race.

Even if he were cleared of the graft charges, he is facing an even more significant legal obstacle: a lawsuit challenging the validity of his university degree -- a constitutional requirement for presidential candidates.

Should he be barred, observers expect CHP leader Ozel to run as candidate for the next presidential race.

P.AbuBaker--SF-PST