{"version":"1.9","identifier":"252b5859-9100-4b52-a580-955b7b82a342","language":"en-US","title":"Rights groups file Strasbourg brief on İmamoğlu's detention as Istanbul trial hears witnesses","layout":{"columns":7,"width":1024,"margin":32,"gutter":20},"componentLayouts":{"text":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"maximumContentWidth":720,"margin":{"top":12,"bottom":12}},"photo":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"margin":{"top":20,"bottom":20}}},"componentTextStyles":{"default":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"textColor":"#171717"},"headline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue-Bold","fontSize":36,"lineHeight":42,"conditional":[{"conditions":{"maxViewportWidth":480},"fontSize":28,"lineHeight":34}]},"intro":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":20,"lineHeight":28,"textColor":"#555555"},"caption":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":19,"textColor":"#666666"},"byline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":20,"textColor":"#666666"},"body":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"paragraphSpacingAfter":14,"linkStyle":{"textColor":"#00704a"}}},"metadata":{"canonicalURL":"https://567politics.com/news/turkey-imamoglu-echr-brief-hrw-icj-tlsp-ibb-trial-witnesses-november-2026","datePublished":"2026-11-03T17:15:26.659615Z","dateModified":"2026-11-03T17:16:46.484224Z","authors":["Patrick Karsh"],"excerpt":"Three legal groups filed a brief at the European Court of Human Rights on the jailed mayor as his 436-defendant trial began hearing witnesses.","thumbnailURL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/252b5859-9100-4b52-a580-955b7b82a342/5dcffb37a10e158a6f30fb73f6d5d3a4.jpg","keywords":["tr"],"generatorName":"Frog News","generatorVersion":"1.0"},"components":[{"role":"title","text":"Rights groups file Strasbourg brief on İmamoğlu's detention as Istanbul trial hears witnesses","textStyle":"headline","layout":"text"},{"role":"intro","text":"Three legal groups filed a brief at the European Court of Human Rights on the jailed mayor as his 436-defendant trial began hearing witnesses.","textStyle":"intro","layout":"text"},{"role":"byline","text":"By Patrick Karsh · Published November 3, 2026","textStyle":"byline","layout":"text"},{"role":"photo","URL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/252b5859-9100-4b52-a580-955b7b82a342/5dcffb37a10e158a6f30fb73f6d5d3a4.jpg","caption":"The European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg, France (2019 photo). · Gzen92 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)","accessibilityCaption":"The European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg, France (2019 photo).","layout":"photo"},{"role":"caption","text":"The European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg, France (2019 photo). · Gzen92 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)","textStyle":"caption","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nThe 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.\n\n## What the rights groups filed in Strasbourg\n\nA 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](https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/11/03/turkiye-european-court-to-rule-on-istanbul-mayors-detention) says his complaint rests on three parts of the European Convention on Human Rights:","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"},{"role":"htmltable","html":"<table><tr><th>Provision</th><th>What it protects</th></tr><tr><td>Article 5</td><td>The right to liberty and security</td></tr><tr><td>Article 18</td><td>A ban on limiting rights for hidden purposes</td></tr><tr><td>Protocol 1, Article 3</td><td>The right to free elections</td></tr></table>","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"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.\n\n\"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.\n\nTemur 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.\"\n\nThe 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.\n\n## The precedents the groups cite\n\nThe 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.\"\n\nThe 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.\n\n\"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.\n\nThe HDP's successor, the DEM Party, is now a central player in the stalled peace process with the PKK, as [567politics reported this week](https://567politics.com/news/turkey-ocalan-imrali-new-quarters-dem-peace-process-stalled-november-2026) in its story on Abdullah Öcalan's move to new quarters on İmralı.\n\n## The trial in Silivri\n\nThe 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](https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/imamoglu-cikar-amacli-suc-orgutu-davasi-102-durusmasi-basladi-43363212).\n\nThe 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.\n\nThree 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.\n\n**Key steps in the İmamoğlu case**\n\n* **March 19, 2025**: İmamoğlu arrested; a court later orders him held on the day the CHP names him its presidential candidate\n* **May 2026**: An Ankara appeals court removes Özgür Özel as CHP leader\n* **July 2026**: Most CHP lawmakers form and join the New Party (Yeni Parti)\n* **October 14–17, 2026**: İmamoğlu gives his defense; the court frees seven defendants\n* **November 2, 2026**: Third session opens with witnesses and complainants\n* **November 3, 2026**: Rights groups announce their brief in Strasbourg\n\nSource: [Human Rights Watch](https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/11/03/turkiye-european-court-to-rule-on-istanbul-mayors-detention), [BBC Türkçe](https://www.bbc.com/turkce/articles/cm87zngy4y5no)\n\n## What happened in court on Monday\n\nThe third session opened on November 2, the 102nd day of hearings. The presiding judge set out a timetable, [T24 reported](https://t24.com.tr/gundem/ibb-davasinda-102-gun-mahkeme-baskani-takvimi-acikladi-bu-hafta-taniklar-gelecek-hafta-tahliye-talepleri,1356597). \"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.\n\nThe court also ordered four secret witnesses, known by code names, to appear, [BBC Türkçe reported](https://www.bbc.com/turkce/articles/cm87zngy4y5no). Özgür Özel, now leader of the New Party, said in December 2025 that one of them had withdrawn all earlier statements, the BBC said.\n\nSeveral 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.\"\n\nAnother 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.\"\n\nSeparately, 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.\n\nThe 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.\n\n## How the opposition has split over the case\n\nThe 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.\n\nThe 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](https://www.bbc.com/turkce/articles/cgl318g027no). But he added: \"I am also against trial in detention.\"\n\nİmamoğlu 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](https://www.bbc.com/turkce/articles/c63dj1xgdkgxo).\n\nThe 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](https://567politics.com/news/turkey-parliament-mecca-defense-pact-vote-saudi-pakistan-party-positions-november-2026).\n\n## The government's case\n\nThe 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](https://basin.adalet.gov.tr/adalet-bakani-akin-gurlek-gundeme-iliskin-aciklamalarda-bulundu). He also said the judges on the panel were senior and experienced.\n\nIn 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](https://www.birgun.net/haber/bakan-gurlek-imamoglu-davalarini-elestiren-ap-raportoru-sanchez-amor-u-hedef-aldi-yargi-bagimsiz-iddiasi-722559). He said legal cases in Turkey move forward under the Constitution and the evidence, not foreign lawmakers' agendas.\n\nGürlek has also led public statements on a separate probe into investment funds, which [567politics has covered](https://567politics.com/news/turkey-fund-probe-borsa-istanbul-ergun-arrest-request-takasbank-spk-november-2026).\n\n## What remains unknown\n\nSeveral points cannot yet be settled from public sources:\n\n* **Timing in Strasbourg.** No ruling date is public, and it is not known whether the court has asked Ankara to respond.\n* **Turkey's answer.** 567politics found no statement from the Justice Ministry or the presidency on the brief by Tuesday afternoon, November 3 (ET).\n* **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.\n* **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.\n\n*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](https://567politics.com/editorial-standards) explain how we separate allegations from findings.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"}]}