The metropolitan mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, continues in custody for the third day while waiting for the judge to decide whether to release him or order his arrest. While protests by the opposition against his detention continue and uncertainty about his political future remains, the Turkish press has published the 7 main charges brought against the mayor by the public prosecutor’s office, mainly related to corruption in the municipality but also to alleged deal with members of a terrorist organisation.
According to information published by media such as the Hürriyet newspaper, the first of the charges faced by the still mayor of Istanbul is for belonging to and leading a criminal organisation, the purpose of which was to create a web of corruption and bribery within the municipality. This investigation, which involves 95 other defendants, is related to the illegal awarding of public contracts to the company İBB Medya, linked to the metropolitan council, in a plot allegedly headed by İmamoğlu.
The second of the charges alleges that several employees of İBB Medya asked bribes from various businessmen, sometimes disguising these payments as donations. Other charges against the mayor of Istanbul include crimes of coercion against various businessmen so that they made financial contributions, as well as participation in illicit transactions to launder black money, among other crimes.
A corrupt plot within the municipality
The prosecution also accuses İmamoğlu of being involved in the systematic manipulation of municipal tenders related to public advertising spaces; prosecutors claim that participants in this criminal plot set up fictitious companies to simulate commercial transactions with subsidiary companies of the municipality, inflating the prices of contracts to justify the illicit profits obtained through bribes and other means.
A fifth charge against the metropolitan mayor of Istanbul relates to fraud committed on a large scale, in which supposedly non-existent municipal projects would have been used with the sole aim of concealing the embezzlement of public funds that was taking place in the municipality of the Turkish metropolis.
The sixth and final charge relating to corruption that İmamoğlu faces is related to the theft or illegal acquisition of the personal data of Istanbul residents, which would have been used to enable the continuation of the corruption, bribery and money laundering scheme operating in the municipality, allegedly led by its mayor.
Alliances with the PKK
Finally, the 7th and last crime of which the prosecution accuses the mayor of Istanbul is that of providing support and collaboration and maintaining dealings with the terrorist organisation PKK/KCK, offering its members jobs in the municipality.
Prosecutors maintain that İmamoğlu, knowingly and willingly, participated in a plot to establish a collaboration of mutual interest between his CHP party and the Kurdish nationalist party DEM; this plot stipulated that, in exchange for the DEM supporting the CHP in certain municipalities during the local elections of 2024, İmamoğlu’s party would illegally hire sympathisers and members of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) for various positions in their municipalities, including the Istanbul Metropolitan Council.
VOTE
EDITORIAL TEAM
🧿 About us
.
Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
…
📣 Your ADVERTISING on Hispanatolia
.
🤗 HELP US WITH A DONATION:
💗 Paypal
