From the İmamoğlu indictment: 564 times “I heard”, 969 times “as far as I remember”
In the indictment prepared against İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor and CHP’s Presidential Candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, the phrases “As far as I remember” appear 969 times, “I don’t know” 774 times, and “I heard” 564 times. The indictment also contains 691 words with the suffixes “-mışlar, -mişler, -muşlar”.
An examination of the 3,741-page indictment prepared by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office against Ekrem İmamoğlu revealed the language used. Frequent use of expressions such as “I heard”, “I think” and “as far as I remember” drew attention.
The indictment against Ekrem İmamoğlu consists of 3,741 pages. It lists 142 separate acts including establishing an organisation, bribery, bid rigging, money laundering, fraud and recording personal data. A prison sentence of 492 years at the minimum and up to 1,456 years at the maximum is sought for İmamoğlu.
“I HEARD, I THINK”
The words used in the indictment prompted criticism that it was “an indictment built on baseless claims.” The frequency of certain phrases in witnesses’ statements in the İmamoğlu indictment is as follows:
969 times “As far as I remember”
774 times “I don’t know”
691 times “-mışlar, -mişler, -muşlar” (seem / appear to have)
546 times “I heard”
516 times “As far as I know”
499 times “It could be”
401 times “I learned”
235 times “I think”
62 times “According to what I heard”
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled İmamoğlu iddianamesinden: 564 kez “duydum”, 969 kez “hatırladığım kadarıyla”, published in BirGün newspaper on November 12, 2025.
