Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was kicked out of his court hearing on July 8, 2026. He is on trial for corruption charges. The courtroom sits next to Silivri prison, outside Istanbul, where he has been held since his arrest.

The same day, something very different was happening in Ankara: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was hosting world leaders from NATO (the North Atlantic alliance) at a major summit.

İmamoğlu's trial started on March 9, 2026. Over 400 people are being tried alongside him. Because so many defendants are involved, the court built a special courtroom next to the prison just to hold the trial. The court hearing that week was scheduled to run July 6–9. By the fourth session in March, the defendant count had grown to 407 people, with 107 held in prison awaiting trial.

Access to the trial has been a problem. Human Rights Watch, an international monitoring group, reported in March that journalists and observers were being blocked from attending. In one case, someone tried to enter using a fake press pass and filmed inside the courtroom. The prosecutor's office arrested that person. İmamoğlu faces a second charge as well: an insult case, where prosecutors are asking for a sentence between three months and two years.

The NATO summit took place July 7–8 in Ankara. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte held a press conference on July 6 and met with Erdoğan the same day. NATO highlighted Turkey's long membership in the alliance as host.

The timing is striking. İmamoğlu is the elected mayor of Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city. He is seen as Erdoğan's strongest potential challenger in a future election. The European Committee of the Regions—an EU body representing local and regional governments—released a statement raising concerns about whether İmamoğlu is getting a fair trial and the right to defend himself. That kind of language, used by European officials, signals worry about due-process standards.

What makes this moment different from the earlier hearings in March is how public and visible it all has become. Over 400 defendants make the trial huge and hard to manage—that's why they built the special courtroom. The ejection of İmamoğlu on July 8 happened at the same moment Erdoğan was acting as host to world leaders. European observers will likely notice this timing, even though NATO as an organization typically stays out of countries' internal legal matters.

The two cases—the corruption trial and the insult charge—are separate. Each has its own rules of evidence and possible punishments. The dispute over who can film and attend the trial is a narrower fight that Human Rights Watch had already flagged. What happens next—whether the trial wraps up on July 9 as planned, and what the court decides—will shape how these parallel stories play out in Turkish politics.