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.
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