Sawt Falasteen - One year after arrest, Turkey opposition champion Imamoglu goes on trial

Arrested last year on March 19 and jailed ever since, Imamoglu is due to appear at Silivri court at 10:00 am (0700 GMT) for the opening of a sweeping graft case in which prosecutors want him jailed for 2,430 years.

Imamoglu was jailed on the day he was named the presidential candidate of the main opposition CHP. He is widely seen as one of the only politicians capable of defeating Erdogan at the ballot box in elections due before mid-2028.

Prosecutors have charged the 54-year-old with 142 offences.

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

The hearing takes place in Silivri courthouse, which is attached to the jail where Imamoglu has been held.

Mayor of Turkey's largest and richest city until his arrest, Imamoglu is facing allegations ranging from graft to embezzlement and espionage, alongside 407 other defendants, in an indictment that runs nearly 4,000 pages.

- 'Weaponised' justice system -

The trial has been widely denounced by rights groups like 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 a statement from Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty's deputy director for Europe.

"This mass trial is the most extreme example of the disturbing weaponisation of Turkey's justice system, whose independence has now been almost entirely hollowed out."

The CHP had planned to set up a solidarity encampment outside the courthouse. Over the weekend, however, authorities slapped a month-long ban on any demonstrations, marches, banners or speeches within a one-kilometre radius of the facility.

They have also limited the number of journalists able to enter the hearing to 25, of which only five places have been allocated to the international media, the CHP said.

Tora Pekin, one of Imamoglu's lawyers, said a summary of the indictment would be read out at Monday's hearing. After that, the court would check that all defendants were present with their legal representatives.

The court will also decide the time frame for hearing the case, a schedule for weekly hearings and the order in which the defendants will take the stand, he said.

- Legal crackdown -

Since the CHP won a resounding victory in the March 2024 local elections against Erdogan's ruling AKP, it has faced a sweeping legal crackdown. Fifteen of its mayors are now behind bars.

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

Even if he were to be 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, political observers expect the CHP's current leader Ozgur Ozel to emerge as the likely candidate for the presidential race.

X.AbuJaber--SF-PST