A Turkish court has filed new charges against opposition leader Ekrem Imamoglu, whose arrest in March sparked mass antigovernment protests.
The move by prosecutors on Monday against the jailed Istanbul mayor stems from an investigation launched last week into alleged links to a businessman arrested in July for carrying out intelligence activities on behalf of foreign governments.
The charges are part of what Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party, or CHP, has labelled a long-running crackdown on the opposition.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government rejects this accusation and insists that Turkiye’s judiciary is independent and the charges and investigations are based squarely on the opposition’s involvement in corruption and other illegal activities.
Imamoglu’s arrest in March on corruption charges caused nationwide protests while he received a jail sentence in July for insulting and threatening the chief Istanbul prosecutor.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said Imamoglu – Erdogan’s main political rival – is suspected, among other things, of transferring personal data of Istanbul residents as part of an effort to secure international funding for his presidential campaign.
Imamoglu has denied all the charges, both in court and on social media.
“Such a slander, lie and conspiracy wouldn’t even cross the devil’s mind!” he wrote on X. “We are facing a shameful indecency that can’t be described with words.”
Imamoglu’s former campaign manager, Necati Ozkan, was also charged alongside Merdan Yanardag, editor-in-chief of the television news channel Tele1.
The channel, which is critical of the government, was seized by the state on Friday, citing the espionage accusations.
Waves of arrests
Hundreds of supporters rallied outside Istanbul’s main courthouse on Sunday as Imamoglu was questioned by prosecutors. It was the first time he had left Istanbul’s Marmara Prison on the outskirts of Istanbul in seven months.
Critics view his detention and the subsequent additional charges as part of a broader crackdown on the opposition, which made significant gains in last year’s local elections.
CHP mayors and municipalities have faced waves of arrests throughout the year on corruption-related charges.
Erdogan has denied accusations of political interference in the judiciary.
On Friday, an Ankara court dismissed a bid to oust Ozgur Ozel as leader of the CHP in a case centred on allegations of vote buying and procedural irregularities at the party’s 2023 congress.
