In a high-profile verdict that has reignited debates over judicial independence in Turkey, an Istanbul court on Monday handed down corruption convictions to five municipal mayors belonging to the country’s main opposition bloc, a case critics have long decried as a politically motivated effort to weaken government opponents.
The seven-month trial, held at a courthouse adjacent to Silivri Prison on Istanbul’s western outskirts, centered on claims of bribery, bid-rigging, and fraudulent manipulation of municipal public contracts involving 200 total defendants. While some other defendants received sentences and others were cleared, full details of their rulings have not been released to the public as of Monday’s verdict.
Prosecutors’ case was built around the activities of Turkish businessman Aziz Ihsan Aktas, whose companies stand accused of securing lucrative municipal tender agreements through illegal kickbacks and fraudulent bidding practices. Aktas was first taken into custody in Istanbul in January of last year; his arrest triggered widespread investigations into multiple CHP-governed districts across Istanbul, as well as the southern CHP-run municipalities of Adana and Adiyaman. After initially denying all wrongdoing, Aktas agreed to cooperate with prosecutors under Turkey’s “effective repentance” law, turning witness against his co-defendants and claiming he bribed mayors and municipal officials with cash, luxury vehicles, and other favors to win contract awards. In a separate, related trial, Aktas was sentenced to 2 years and 8 months in prison for bid-rigging, but acquitted on separate bribery charges.
Of the five convicted mayors, all from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Riza Akpolat — the sitting mayor of Istanbul’s upscale Besiktas district — received the harshest penalty: 23 years and three months in prison on charges of bribe-taking, money laundering, and bid-rigging. The four other convicted mayors, who were all removed from their elected positions immediately following their arrests, received sentences ranging from five to eight years.
Critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration have raised a series of red flags about the conduct of the trial, arguing it was deliberately crafted to target the CHP ahead of upcoming political contests. Two key controversial elements have drawn particular scrutiny: the prosecution’s reliance on secret witnesses, many of whom openly acknowledged their testimony was based on second-hand hearsay, and the use of cooperating codefendants like Aktas who secured more lenient sentences by implicating other defendants.
Akpolat himself told the court during proceedings that investigators offered to drop all charges against him if he agreed to provide false testimony in a separate investigation into CHP’s 2023 internal party congress. That investigation ultimately led a Turkish court to order the removal of CHP’s top leadership in May over claims of voting irregularities during the party’s leadership election. The ouster prompted hundreds of CHP members to follow former leader Ozgur Ozel to form a New Party, which now holds the position of the largest opposition bloc in Turkey’s national parliament.
The opposition has also pointed to a double standard in enforcement, noting that municipalities controlled by Erdogan’s ruling party that also conducted business with Aktas never faced the same level of rigorous investigation that the CHP municipalities endured.
For its part, the Erdogan administration has repeatedly rejected claims of political interference, insisting that Turkey’s national judiciary operates as an independent body free from political pressure.
Monday’s conviction comes amid a broader pattern of legal action against CHP officials following the party’s strong showing in recent local elections. The CHP seized control of several major Turkish cities, including Istanbul and the capital Ankara, in the 2019 local elections, and expanded on those gains in the 2024 municipal polls. Since the 2024 election, dozens of CHP elected officials have faced various criminal charges in Turkish courts.
The highest-profile case against the opposition involves Ekrem Imamoglu, the popular metropolitan mayor of Istanbul and the CHP’s leading candidate to challenge Erdogan in the next presidential election. Imamoglu has been held in pre-trial detention since March of last year, facing a sprawling set of corruption charges related to Istanbul municipal operations that mirror the claims in the Aktas case. If convicted on all counts, Imamoglu could face a cumulative sentence of more than 2,300 years in prison.
All five convicted mayors have announced they plan to appeal Monday’s verdict, with their legal team vowing to challenge what they call a politically tainted conviction built on unreliable and coerced testimony.