ANKARA (Medyascope) – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has released a list of six questions directed at Turkey over the imprisonment of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. These questions follow an application to the ECHR by the mayor alleging his imprisonment to be politically motivated.
By Özgecan Özgenç • Medyascope
Four of the six questions released by the ECHR deal with the lawfulness and duration of İmamoğlu’s detention, while the last two questions focus on whether the mayor’s arrest was a politically motivated attempt to hinder his presidential candidacy.
İmamoğlu, mayor of Istanbul since 2019, was arrested on March 19th, 2025 on corruption charges criticized by Turkish opposition leaders as politically motivated. His arrest took place just days before his nomination as presidential candidate by Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). İmamoğlu is widely viewed as the most competitive and viable opposition challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey’s upcoming 2028 presidential elections.
In November 2025, İmamoğlu had filed an application to the ECHR alleging that his detention was unlawful. In December, İmamoğlu’s lawyer announced that the application had been granted ‘priority review status’ by the ECHR, a rarity for Turkish cases at the court.
One question from the ECHR questioned the ‘reasonable doubt’ in the İmamoğlu case. The court had previously ruled that the cases against Selahattin Demirtaş and Osman Kavala did not constitute ‘reasonable doubt’, calling for both men’s release.
İmamoğlu faces over two-millenia imprisonment
İmamoğlu, now imprisoned for over a year, faces the possibility of a 2400-year jail sentence in a trial targeting the opposition-held Istanbul municipality. Since major gains by the Turkish opposition in 2024’s local elections, scores of opposition officials across Turkey have been arrested or removed from office in what has been described as a historic crackdown on the main opposition CHP.
ECHR questions Turkey over imprisonment of Istanbul Mayor by Özgecan Özgenç
Translated by Leo Kendrick for Medyascope
