Jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on Friday accused President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling party of allowing developers to reap $85 billion in profit by building on public land and granting permission for more construction on private plots, using his corruption trial defense to challenge the administration he replaced.
İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s main political rival, presented the allegation on the third day of his defense at the Marmara Prison complex in Silivri, west of İstanbul, a day after prosecutors opened another investigation into remarks he made in court.
He attributed the $85 billion figure to an examination of 130 development projects under Justice and Development Party (AKP) administrations between 2009 and 2019, describing changes that allowed private development on land designated for public facilities, according to courtroom accounts compiled by the AçıkSilivri trial monitoring platform.
“We were robbed of $85 billion,” he said.
He contrasted increases in development rights granted to 2,278 parcels under AKP administrations between 2009 and 2019 with 69 between 2019 and 2026, maintaining that the latter implemented rights established through legal proceedings.
İmamoğlu argued that he and his colleagues were imprisoned because they obstructed practices that enriched developers at the public’s expense.
The figure was not a new disclosure. İmamoğlu had made a similar allegation in August 2024, arguing that public land and additional building rights had generated private gains instead of financing the replacement of housing vulnerable to earthquakes.
His courtroom allegations came a day after the Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office opened another investigation into him for allegedly insulting prosecutors during his defense.
The prosecutor’s announcement identified his remarks on Thursday’s session of the trial about judicial officials who conducted the investigation into him as the grounds for the new case.
During that session İmamoğlu recounted seeking an appointment with Akın Gürlek, now Turkey’s justice minister, after Gürlek became İstanbul’s chief public prosecutor in 2024.
He told the court that an appointment arranged for October 30, 2024, was canceled the previous day and described a telephone conversation between them, the Bianet news website reported.
Main opposition New Party leader Özgür Özel criticized the investigation, arguing that prosecutors were responding to İmamoğlu’s rebuttal of the indictment by initiating another case, in comments to the Medyascope news website after Thursday’s hearing.
İmamoğlu’s defense has also challenged the financial calculations behind the prosecution.
On Thursday he argued that approximately 110 billion lira ($2.2 billion at current exchange rates) of the roughly 160 billion lira in alleged losses concerned the Cebeci stone quarries in Sultangazi, a district on İstanbul’s European side, where companies extract rock used in construction, concrete and asphalt.
He described the quarry project as a central government initiative established before he became mayor and argued that responsibility for the alleged losses rested with the public bodies overseeing it.
He also challenged the classification of foreign loan repayments and transfers to municipal companies as losses, arguing that prosecutors had treated documented financial transactions as evidence of wrongdoing.
In another development İmamoğlu asked the court to summon Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as a witness concerning the purchase of the party’s İstanbul headquarters.
He argued that Kılıçdaroğlu, who led the CHP when the building was purchased, knew how the transaction was financed and should testify about allegations now being used against him.
Kılıçdaroğlu returned to CHP leadership through a court ruling overturning the congress at which Özel defeated him, prompting Özel and his allies to establish the New Party, which İmamoğlu subsequently joined.
İmamoğlu on Friday also criticized the detention of journalist Murat Ağırel, who was already under house arrest, linking pressure on journalists to efforts to prevent scrutiny of the government and Turkey’s investment fund scandal.
He had condemned Wednesday’s takeover of Halk TV, a broadcaster that covers the opposition, during the opening of his defense.
The İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality case involves 436 defendants, 53 of them jailed pending trial, and allegations of bribery, bid rigging, money laundering and operating a criminal organization.
Prosecutors accuse İmamoğlu of using municipal resources for personal enrichment and his political ambitions, accusations he denies.
He has been imprisoned since March 23, 2025, and contends that the prosecution aims to prevent him from challenging Erdoğan for the presidency.
İmamoğlu ended decades of rule by Erdoğan’s political camp when he won İstanbul in 2019, winning a second time after the initial result was annulled and securing re-election in 2024.
His defense began Wednesday, nearly 19 months after his imprisonment, with time allocated for him and his lawyers to speak through Saturday, October 17.
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