The master's degree of the arrested and temporarily suspended mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu was declared invalid by Istanbul University, the Turkish state television "TRT Haber" reported, quoted by BTA.
The decision was reached after a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Social Sciences at Istanbul University on July 24, 2025. The reasons for it state that İmamoğlu did not meet the criteria for presenting the required bachelor's degree, thus failing to meet the requirements for admission to the university's master's programs.
The decision also stipulates that İmamoğlu's data will be deleted from the Academic Registration System and the Higher Education Registry, and his master's thesis will be deleted from the National Thesis Center.
The dismissed mayor of Istanbul has already received two sentences totaling 1 year and 8 months in prison for insulting an official and making threats.
Whether this will be repeated on the charge of forging an official document, which he received for his diploma, remains to be seen when the trial begins. The prosecution requested a sentence of 2 years and 6 months to 8 years and 9 months in prison, and the court accepted the indictment.
The first hearing in the case is on September 11, 2025.