Rights groups file Strasbourg brief on İmamoğlu's detention as Istanbul trial hears witnesses

Three legal groups said on Tuesday, November 3, that they had asked the European Court of Human Rights to look closely at the jailing of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the suspended mayor of Istanbul. They announced the filing as his corruption trial in Istanbul entered a new phase. On Monday, the court began hearing about 60 witnesses and complainants.

The Turkey Litigation Support Project, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists have filed a third-party brief in İmamoğlu's own case before the Strasbourg court. They argue that Turkish authorities are "misusing powers of detention and prosecution" to keep opposition politicians out of elections and public life. The Turkish government has long said its courts are independent and decide cases on the evidence. 567politics found no government response to the brief itself by Tuesday afternoon.

The case matters beyond one man. İmamoğlu won Istanbul twice and was named a presidential candidate by the Republican People's Party (CHP) the same week he was jailed. The trial, the party split that followed it, and now the Strasbourg case shape how Turkey's opposition will enter the next national election.

What the rights groups filed in Strasbourg

A third-party brief, often called an amicus brief, lets outside groups give a court facts and legal arguments in a case they are not a party to. Such briefs need the court's permission. This one was filed in a case İmamoğlu brought himself. Human Rights Watch's release says his complaint rests on three parts of the European Convention on Human Rights:

The groups say the brief gives the court information on "patterns of human rights violations, abuse of the criminal law, and the erosion of judicial independence in Türkiye." They argue that lower courts' failure to follow some rulings of Turkey's Constitutional Court leaves opposition politicians without real protection at home.

"Detaining political opponents and perceived dissenting voices to remove them from political life and to silence them has become a familiar playbook in Türkiye," said Ayşe Bingöl Demir of the Turkey Litigation Support Project.

Temur Shakirov, who directs the Europe and Central Asia program at the International Commission of Jurists, said: "We trust that the European Court of Human Rights will continue to apply the closest scrutiny to the prosecution and detention of opposition politicians in Türkiye."

The release does not say when the court will rule. It also does not say whether the court has asked Turkey for its own written response.

The precedents the groups cite

The brief leans on two earlier lines of cases. The first concerns the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). After waves of arrests in 2016 and 2017, the court found that the detention of the party's co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ Şenoğlu, and 15 other HDP politicians pursued a hidden aim. In its words, that aim was "stifling pluralism and limiting freedom of political debate."

The second concerns Osman Kavala, a businessman and civil society figure. Since 2019, the court has issued eight judgments on HDP politicians and Kavala in which it found that Turkey breached Article 18, according to Human Rights Watch.

"In those cases, the court immediately ordered their release," said Aisling Reidy, a senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch. She said the İmamoğlu case "bears many similarities" to them.

The HDP's successor, the DEM Party, is now a central player in the stalled peace process with the PKK, as 567politics reported this week in its story on Abdullah Öcalan's move to new quarters on İmralı.

The trial in Silivri

The case against İmamoğlu is being heard by the Istanbul 33rd High Criminal Court. It sits in a new courtroom across from the Marmara Prison complex in Silivri, west of Istanbul. There are 436 defendants, 46 of them in custody, Hürriyet reported.

The indictment, written by the Istanbul chief prosecutor's organized crime bureau, calls İmamoğlu the leader of a criminal group formed in 2014. It lists 143 acts. It puts the gain and public loss at about 160 billion lira and $24 million, plus 95 properties. Prosecutors seek a prison term of 849 to 2,430 years and six months for İmamoğlu on charges that include forming a criminal group, bribery, bid-rigging and money laundering, Hürriyet said. He denies the charges.

Three defendants whom the indictment describes as managers of the group gave investigators information about its structure and acts after their arrest. Prosecutors asked the court to apply "effective remorse" rules, which can reduce their sentences. Other cases, including one against the suspended mayor of Beyoğlu, have been merged into the trial. Over the course of the case, 70 people have been released, Hürriyet said.

1. March 19, 2025İmamoğlu arrested; a court later orders him held on the day the CHP names him its presidential candidate
2. May 2026An Ankara appeals court removes Özgür Özel as CHP leader
3. July 2026Most CHP lawmakers form and join the New Party (Yeni Parti)
4. October 14–17, 2026İmamoğlu gives his defense; the court frees seven defendants
5. November 2, 2026Third session opens with witnesses and complainants
6. November 3, 2026Rights groups announce their brief in Strasbourg

Source: Human Rights Watch, BBC Türkçe

What happened in court on Monday

The third session opened on November 2, the 102nd day of hearings. The presiding judge set out a timetable, T24 reported. "This week we will take the statements of witnesses and complainants," he said. "Next week we will give the defendants and their lawyers the floor on their requests for release." "On Thursday we will issue an interim ruling on detention," he added. He said he hoped to finish the session within two weeks.

The court also ordered four secret witnesses, known by code names, to appear, BBC Türkçe reported. Özgür Özel, now leader of the New Party, said in December 2025 that one of them had withdrawn all earlier statements, the BBC said.

Several complainants said they no longer had complaints against any defendant. Others said their complaints stood. One witness, Ahmet Taşçı, said he was not an eyewitness and that his account rested on what he had heard. Asked by the judge what he based his claims on, he answered: "What I heard."

Another witness described a meeting that Istanbul Governor Davut Gül had attended. İmamoğlu then asked again that the governor be called to testify. "A trial held without calling the governor is illegitimate," he said, according to T24. The judge told him: "If you continue like this, I will remove you from the courtroom."

Separately, the Bakırköy chief prosecutor's office has opened an inquiry into İmamoğlu for "publicly insulting public officials" over words he used in his October defense, T24 and the BBC reported.

The BBC said the next session is expected to cover the evidence. After that, the trial prosecutor is due to give a final opinion on the merits. All defendants would then give their full defenses.

How the opposition has split over the case

The trial has reshaped the opposition. Between March 2025 and August 2026, 43 CHP-run municipalities faced court proceedings and 31 CHP mayors were detained, Human Rights Watch reported. In May 2026, an Ankara appeals court removed Özel as party leader in what HRW calls "a controversial decision." The ruling put Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the party's former leader, back in the post, BBC Türkçe reported. In July, most CHP members of parliament formed the New Party.

The two parties now take different views of the case. In June, Kılıçdaroğlu told Cumhuriyet columnist Mustafa Balbay that the cases against the party were not political. "Those are corruption cases," he said, BBC Türkçe reported. But he added: "I am also against trial in detention."

İmamoğlu answered him from the dock in October. He argued that the case grew out of political hostility toward his record in Istanbul. Of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, he said: "He saw he could not beat me at the ballot box, so he tried to beat me by arresting me," BBC Türkçe reported.

The split shows up on other issues too. This week the CHP under Kılıçdaroğlu backed a defense pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, while the New Party opposed it, as 567politics reported.

The government's case

The government says the courts act on their own. In March, Justice Minister Akın Gürlek told reporters in parliament: "Courtrooms are not a political arena. No political show can be put on there; only trials are held in courtrooms." He said: "The court decides according to the evidence in the file, the material evidence and its conscience," according to the Justice Ministry. He also said the judges on the panel were senior and experienced.

In July, Gürlek rejected criticism from the European Parliament's Turkey rapporteur, Nacho Sánchez Amor. "No one can wag a finger at Turkish courts," he wrote, BirGün reported. He said legal cases in Turkey move forward under the Constitution and the evidence, not foreign lawmakers' agendas.

Gürlek has also led public statements on a separate probe into investment funds, which 567politics has covered.

What remains unknown

Several points cannot yet be settled from public sources:

• Timing in Strasbourg. No ruling date is public, and it is not known whether the court has asked Ankara to respond.
• Turkey's answer. 567politics found no statement from the Justice Ministry or the presidency on the brief by Tuesday afternoon, November 3 (ET).
• Public opinion. We found no recent representative poll on whether Turks see the case as a criminal or a political matter. Courtroom crowds and party rallies are not a measure of national opinion.
• The evidence. The trial has not yet reached its evidence phase or the prosecutor's final opinion. Witness accounts so far are claims made in court, not findings.

How we reported this: 567politics read the Human Rights Watch release in full, trial reports from T24, BBC Türkçe, Hürriyet and Hürriyet Daily News, and statements by the Justice Ministry. Quotes from Turkish sources are our translations. Our editorial standards explain how we separate allegations from findings.

Differing perspectives

Should İmamoğlu remain in pretrial detention while his corruption trial continues?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Have the European court find the detention unlawful

  Who holds it: Turkey Litigation Support Project, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists

  The groups argue that Turkish authorities use detention and serious charges such as organized crime to remove opposition politicians from elections and public life. They point to eight European court judgments since 2019 finding that Turkey restricted rights for hidden purposes, including the cases of HDP leaders and Osman Kavala. They say lower courts ignore some Constitutional Court rulings, so politicians lack real protection at home, and they ask the court to apply its closest scrutiny.

  In their words: Human Rights Watch ↗

• Leave it to the trial court to decide on the evidence

  Who holds it: Justice Minister Akın Gürlek and the Turkish government

  The government says Turkey's courts are independent and that the trial should be left to the judges. Gürlek says courtrooms are not a stage for politics and that every defendant, whatever office he held, is treated simply as a defendant. The court, he says, rules on the material evidence in the file and its own conscience. He adds that the panel's judges are senior and experienced, and that no court is swayed by rhetoric or political speeches.

  In their words: Turkish Ministry of Justice ↗

• Release İmamoğlu from a case he calls political

  Who holds it: Ekrem İmamoğlu and his defense

  İmamoğlu denies the charges and says the case grew out of political hostility toward the success of his model for running Istanbul. He argues that the president, unable to beat him at the ballot box, sought to stop him through arrest instead. He says his administration came through about 1,600 audits and was inspected 11 times more than its predecessor. His side says the trial is political and that he should not be held while it runs.

  In their words: BBC Türkçe, reporting İmamoğlu's court defense ↗

• Try the corruption charges, but not in detention

  Who holds it: Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, chair of the CHP after the May 2026 appeals ruling

  Kılıçdaroğlu says the cases against party figures are corruption cases, not political ones, and that court rulings must be obeyed even when they are sharply criticized. At the same time, he says he opposes holding defendants in detention during their trials, a position he says he also stated when he visited İmamoğlu's family. He says he wants the party to cleanse itself and return to normal politics, and that his critics object when he says so.

  In their words: BBC Türkçe, reporting Kılıçdaroğlu's interview ↗