Istanbul (dpa) - The ousted mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, is standing trial in Turkey in yet another case. According to the state news agency Anadolu, the Istanbul public prosecutor’s office has charged him and three other defendants with “political espionage”. It is alleged that information from the Istanbul city administration was passed on to foreign intelligence services in order to influence the election campaign in favour of the opposition party, the CHP. All four defendants face prison sentences of up to 20 years and are currently in pre-trial detention. The defendants deny the allegations.

Imamoglu: “The indictment is a veritable judicial murder”

Former mayor Imamoglu criticised the charges brought against him and other city officials as slander. He claimed they were driven by a fear of losing their own positions and of a potential defeat in the political arena. According to the opposition daily newspaper ‘Cumhuriyet’, Imamoglu described the indictment as "a veritable judicial murder".

Imamoglu was first elected mayor of the metropolis of Istanbul in 2019; in March last year, he was detained on corruption charges and removed from office. Furthermore, his university degree was revoked – a prerequisite for standing as a presidential candidate. He is regarded as a promising challenger to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The opposition considers the proceedings against Imamoglu to be politically motivated and sees them as an attempt to exclude his rival from the political contest. The government rejects this. The action taken against Imamoglu had triggered nationwide protests.

Numerous trials

The main trial against Imamoglu also continued, taking place simultaneously in another courtroom within the Silivri prison complex. Imamoglu faces a potential sentence of more than 2,000 years in prison in this case. He and more than 400 other defendants are accused of forming a criminal organisation and of corruption. The trial began in March.

Imamoglu also referred to the parallel proceedings in his defence, stating that all these cases were purely political and were being conducted to the detriment of the people, for self-serving motives. The newspaper “Cumhuriyet” quoted the politician as saying that the prosecution was the real target.

Allegations of political espionage

The indictment accuses Imamoglu, his campaign adviser Necati Özkan, businessman Hüseyin Gün and journalist Merdan Yanardag of running a criminal network and passing on data on Turkish citizens to foreign intelligence services. The aim, it is alleged, was to influence the 2019 election campaign, in which the main opposition party, the CHP, won the Istanbul mayoralty. The AKP had previously governed the city for 15 years.

The prosecution specifically accuses Imamoglu of having given instructions for data collection, the analysis of which is alleged to have been passed on to former employees of the CIA and Mossad. His campaign adviser Özkan is alleged to have collected confidential data via the city administration’s portal and passed it on to the businessman Gün.

Gün dismisses allegations as baseless

The defendants denied the allegations in the espionage trial at the first hearing. Businessman Hüseyin Gün was the first to speak. The espionage charges against him were “nothing more than baseless slander based on old animosity and jealousy”, reported the state news agency Anadolu.

According to the indictment, Gün is considered the main contact with foreign intelligence services; he is also alleged to have organised disinformation campaigns to discredit the government and pave the way for Imamoglu to become CHP leader and president. Furthermore, the prosecution accuses him of paying the journalist Yanardag, editor-in-chief of the opposition broadcaster Tele1, to secure media support. As reported by the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, Gün said in court: “My aim was to share my thoughts with Mr Yanardag. Neither an instruction nor a request nor an order – that is not my place.”

A receiver was appointed for the Tele1 channel last October following Yanardag’s arrest, and the channel is now set to be auctioned off.

Author: hofmann.antonia

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