Prosecutors have filed new charges of “political espionage” against jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, deepening a months-long legal saga that has already kept the prominent opposition figure behind bars since March, Turkish Minute reported.
The new charges come as part of an investigation launched by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which also led to the detention of journalist Merdan Yanardağ and İmamoğlu’s former campaign manager Necati Özkan last Friday. A criminal court in İstanbul issued the arrest order for all three.
İmamoğlu, the mayor of İstanbul and the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate for the 2028 presidential election, was brought from the Marmara Prison in Silivri to the İstanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan on Sunday to testify in the espionage probe. His questioning began after a five-hour delay and lasted around three hours, according to Turkish media reports.
In a statement widely circulated in the press, İmamoğlu denied the allegations, calling them “absurd” and politically motivated.
“I have absolutely no knowledge of or connection with intelligence agencies or their employees,” he said. “I think I am facing a conspiracy theory. It would be more realistic to say that I burned Rome.”
The 54-year-old politician was first arrested in March in a corruption investigation targeting İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, marking the start of his prolonged imprisonment.
Government critics and opposition figures have condemned the successive charges as attempts to sideline President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s most powerful political rival ahead of the next national vote.
Outside the courthouse, thousands of CHP supporters gathered to protest İmamoğlu’s latest arrest. CHP leader Özgül Özel addressed the crowd, accusing the government of weaponizing the judiciary.
“They called him a thief, it didn’t work; they called him corrupt, it didn’t work; they accused him of supporting terrorism, it didn’t work. Now, as a last resort, they tried to call him a spy. Shame on them!” he said to loud cheers.
Yanardağ, the editor-in-chief of the opposition Tele1 channel, was detained on Friday and his station placed under the control of a government-appointed trustee. Özel denounced the move as an assault on press freedom, vowing solidarity with Yanardağ and his colleagues.
Among the crowd outside the courthouse, supporters described the espionage probe as politically motivated.
“They opened this spying investigation because they couldn’t find anything else,” said Ali Saçlı, a 50-year-old CHP supporter. “They are doing this to intimidate us and wear us down.”
