An İstanbul court has accepted a sweeping indictment of businessman Aziz İhsan Aktaş and several mayors from Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), paving the way for a high-profile trial on charges of corruption, bribery and money laundering, the Velev news website reported on Wednesday.
The 578-page indictment was accepted by the İstanbul 1st High Criminal Court, which has not yet issued a preliminary order or set a hearing date, according to Velev.
The case names some 200 suspects, including 40 in pretrial detention, on charges ranging from forming a criminal organization to rigging tenders and laundering illegal assets. Prosecutors are seeking up to 704 years in prison for Aktaş, who faces nine separate charges, including leading an alleged criminal group.
Among those indicted are Beşiktaş Mayor Rıza Akpolat, who faces a possible 415-year sentence, and other mayors from the İstanbul districts of Esenyurt, Gaziosmanpaşa and Avcılar, as well as from Adana province’s Seyhan and Ceyhan districts and the Adana Metropolitan Municipality. The indictment caps a 10-month investigation that has already led to dozens of arrests and detentions of local officials.
The case comes amid a wider judicial campaign against the CHP, which has intensified since the party’s sweeping victory in the March 2024 local elections.
In a report published in late October titled “Judiciary Against the Ballot Box: The Anatomy of a Coup,” the CHP said the series of prosecutions and arrests targeting its mayors represents a “judicial coup” aimed at overturning the will of the voters. The party argues that the government has increasingly used the courts as a political weapon to reverse opposition gains after its worst electoral defeat in two decades.
According to the report 16 CHP mayors remain behind bars and 13 municipalities have been placed under government-appointed trustees. It documents hundreds of arrests in corruption and terrorism-related probes, particularly following the March 2025 arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the CHP’s 2028 presidential candidate and widely seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival.
The CHP also criticized the Aktaş case, saying it rests on inconsistent witness statements and recycled allegations from previous audits. The party noted that the indictment excludes the period when the same municipalities were governed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and treats routine municipal practices as criminal acts.