Sawt Falasteen - Landmark trial opens for Turkey 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 last year on March 19 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.

Applause erupted as he and scores of other defendants entered the courtroom to cheers of: "We are proud of you!"

Imamoglu immediately requested permission to speak but the judge refused, drawing cries of "Shame, shame!" from the gallery, the mayor's team wrote on X.

Then when defence lawyers complained they had not received a full list of defendants, which had instead been leaked to a pro-government newspaper, the judge ordered the court be cleared and suspended the session.

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 elections due before mid-2028.

- 'Like an octopus' -

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, the pro-opposition Halk TV said.

It said the session was expected to resume in the early afternoon.

Prosecutors have charged the 54-year-old 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 radius of the courtroom, supporters gathered at a distance waving images of Imamoglu and more than a dozen other CHP detained mayors, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

"President Imamoglu!" they chanted. "The day will come when the tables are turned and the AKP will be held accountable," they shouted, referring to Erdogan's ruling party.

- '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 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."

With the trial involving such a large number of defendants, the court authorities had started construction of a new courtroom especially for the trial, but it had not been completed on time, CHP officials said on Sunday.

At Monday's hearing, the court is expected to hear a summary of the indictment and decide on the timeframe for hearing the case.

- 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, which is a constitutional requirement for presidential candidates.

Should he be barred, political observers expect CHP leader Ozel to emerge as the party's likely candidate for the presidential race.

U.Shaheen--SF-PST