Prosecutors in Turkey published an indictment on Tuesday against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, widely considered the most popular candidate in the 2028 presidential election, charging him with nearly 150 crimes and requesting a 2,000-year prison sentence.
Imamoglu was arrested in March on dubious charges of corruption, including money laundering and association with organized crime, just days before the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) officially nominated him as their candidate in the presidential election. The indictment revealed on Tuesday accuses Imamoglu of leading a massive organized crime syndicate dedicated to personally enriching those involved. As is typical in the Turkish court system under Islamist strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the indictment also reportedly accused Imamoglu of seemingly random crimes such as “environmental pollution” and “disseminating misleading information.”
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