Joint Statement: On the Right to a Fair Trial and the Right to Defense in the Proceedings Against Ekrem İmamoğlu, Elected Mayor of Istanbul

Mayor İmamoğlu has been held in pre-trial detention since 19 March 2025 — more than fifteen months without a conviction. His application concerning the lawfulness of his detention has been accepted by the European Court of Human Rights under priority status. He now faces the extraordinary demand of appearing before three separate courts on a single day, 6 July, while the court hearing the main case has imposed an unexplained deadline of 9 July to conclude proceedings — abruptly compressing the defense of a man accused of 142 separate acts in a case with over 400 defendants and an indictment of nearly 4,000 pages.

The events of 2 July mark a dangerous turning point. When the Mayor and his counsel objected that a proper defense had become impossible, he was removed from his own trial by gendarmes. Lawyers and elected members of parliament were excluded from the courtroom. His lead defense counsel has himself been detained for over a year for acts arising from the ordinary practice of his profession. A trial in which the principal defendant cannot be heard, and his lawyers cannot act, is not a trial in any meaningful sense.

The right to defense is not a procedural formality. It is the foundation of the rule of law, protected under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Türkiye is bound. Its erosion in Istanbul concerns every city and every citizen in our shared democratic space. Local democracy — the right of citizens to choose their mayors and to see them govern, not be governed from a prison cell — is a common European value we are duty-bound to defend.

We therefore call on the Turkish authorities to:

• Guarantee Mayor İmamoğlu and all co-defendants adequate time and facilities to prepare and present their defense, and lift the arbitrary 9 July deadline;
• Restore full access for defense lawyers, elected representatives, journalists and observers to the hearings at Silivri;
• End the prolonged pre-trial detention of Mayor İmamoğlu, his counsel and codefendants, in line with Türkiye's obligations under Articles 5 and 6 of the Convention.

We call on the Heads of State and Government gathering in Ankara for the NATO Summit to raise these concerns directly with the Turkish government. An alliance founded on democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law cannot treat their erosion in a member state as a domestic footnote. Strategic importance is no substitute for democratic legitimacy.

We call on diplomatic missions and international institutions to ensure the presence of independent trial monitors at Silivri on 6, 7, 8 and 9 July.

The world will be watching Ankara this week. It should also be watching Silivri.