A new indictment against Istanbul’s former mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu, who was arrested last year on charges of corruption, claims the mayor also obtained personal data of Istanbulites and supplied them to foreign intelligence operatives.
The mayor from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is named in the indictment by the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office along with Necati Özkan, his campaign manager, businessperson Hüseyin Gün and journalist Merdan Yanardağ. Prosecutors are asking for prison terms of up to 20 years for the four suspects.
The indictment made public on Wednesday is based on evidence collected by prosecutors and statements of suspects who collaborated with authorities. Prosecutors say Imamoğlu and his associates obtained personal information of people in Istanbul and relayed it to operatives of foreign intelligence services, adding that he conspired with Gün and Özkan to “advance his political interests” through obtaining the said data. Imamoğlu is accused of political espionage, while Özkan and Gün are accused of manipulating the 2019 municipal elections to secure a win for Imamoğlu.
“(The suspects) aimed to maintain a clout in Turkish politics, both in Istanbul and across the country,” the indictment says. Imamoğlu, long rumored to have plans to run for the presidency in the future, was officially declared as CHP’s presidential candidate following his 2025 arrest.
Gün’s arrest last July triggered a new probe into the activities of Imamoğlu, who already faces several lawsuits, ranging from forging his university diploma and insulting public officials to rampant corruption in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB), where he and dozens of other suspects are accused of enriching themselves through bribes and rigging the public tenders.
Prosecutors say a search of digital materials belonging to Gün led to the discovery of data exclusively found in IBB’s database. According to prosecutors, Özkan obtained the data originally and, upon instructions of Imamoğlu, relayed them to open-source intelligence (OSINT) websites. Gün is accused of accessing confidential documents of the municipality.
“By gaining access to all citizens’ phone records and social media messages, information related to the governance of the state, the exercise of governing authority and public administration was collected for the benefit of a foreign state, in line with the secret objectives of a foreign government or organization, to the detriment of the Republic of Türkiye and its citizens or those residing in the country. This conduct fully meets the definition of political espionage,” the indictment concludes.
