{"id":81808,"date":"2026-05-13T18:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/81808\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:07:11","slug":"istanbul-court-keeps-imamoglu-3-others-jailed-in-political-espionage-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/81808\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0130stanbul court keeps \u0130mamo\u011flu, 3 others jailed in \u2018political espionage\u2019 case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Turkish court on Wednesday rejected requests for the release of jailed \u0130stanbul Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu and three co-defendants in a \u201cpolitical espionage\u201d trial in which they face up to 20 years in prison, Turkish Minute<\/a> reported, citing the DHA news agency.<\/p>\n

The \u0130stanbul 25th High Criminal Court ruled for the continued detention of \u0130mamo\u011flu, businessman H\u00fcseyin G\u00fcn, campaign adviser Necati \u00d6zkan and journalist Merdan Yanarda\u011f after a prosecutor requested that all four remain in pretrial detention.<\/p>\n

The court adjourned the trial until July 6 and scheduled a detention review for June 11.<\/p>\n

The third day of the trial was held near the Marmara Prison Complex in Silivri, west of \u0130stanbul. Defendants and their lawyers completed their defenses on Tuesday, and the prosecutor submitted an opinion on interim measures on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor asked the court to keep all four defendants in pretrial detention, arguing that evidence collection had not yet been completed and that judicial supervision measures would be insufficient at this stage.<\/p>\n

According to DHA, the court also rejected defense requests to lift an asset freeze imposed on G\u00fcn and to end the trusteeship imposed on TELE1, the opposition broadcaster led by Yanarda\u011f before his arrest.<\/p>\n

A trustee from Turkey\u2019s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) had been appointed to the company after Yanarda\u011f\u2019s detention, with TELE1 later put up for sale.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor also requested additional information from the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) about IP addresses and server providers used by the \u0130stanbul Metropolitan Municipality.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor\u2019s opinion further asked that Turkey\u2019s National Intelligence Organization (M\u0130T) and the police counterterrorism department examine IP addresses and user information to be obtained from BTK and determine whether email addresses cited in images included in the indictment are genuine.<\/p>\n

The indictment seeks prison sentences of up to 20 years for each defendant on espionage-related charges.<\/p>\n

The case is based on allegations that G\u00fcn, an internationally connected businessman and technology investor, helped foreign intelligence-linked figures use \u0130stanbul Municipality data and campaign analytics to influence the 2019 \u0130stanbul mayoral election in \u0130mamo\u011flu\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege that data from millions of users of the municipality\u2019s \u201c\u0130stanbul Senin\u201d (\u0130stanbul Is Yours) mobile application was transferred abroad and offered for sale on the dark web. The indictment covers an alleged offense period between 2019 and 2025.<\/p>\n

\u0130mamo\u011flu, a leading opposition figure and the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, denies the charges. He previously said he had \u201cabsolutely no knowledge of or connection to intelligence agencies or their employees,\u201d calling the accusations \u201cabsurd.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trial got underway on May 11. G\u00fcn and \u0130mamo\u011flu presented their defenses on the first day, while Yanarda\u011f and \u00d6zkan completed theirs on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u0130mamo\u011flu, the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) candidate for the 2028 presidential election, has been held in Marmara Prison for more than a year. He was arrested in March 2025 in a separate corruption investigation targeting the \u0130stanbul Municipality and later removed from office.<\/p>\n

Critics say the successive legal cases against \u0130mamo\u011flu are aimed at sidelining President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u2019s most prominent political rival ahead of the next national elections. The government denies political interference in the judiciary.<\/p>\n

Another indictment\u00a0filed<\/a>\u00a0in November against \u0130mamo\u011flu accuses him of leading a vast criminal network and committing 142 offenses that could result in a sentence of up to 2,430 years in prison. The nearly 4,000-page indictment accuses \u0130mamo\u011flu of offenses including running a criminal organization, bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, extortion and bid rigging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Turkish court on Wednesday rejected requests for the release of jailed \u0130stanbul Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu and three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[2031,425,312,1869,1181,427,1871,1872,429,1873,430,131,132,43572],"class_list":{"0":"post-81808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stockholm","8":"tag-crackdown-on-opposition","9":"tag-democracy","10":"tag-human-rights","11":"tag-huseyin-gun","12":"tag-istanbul-mayor-ekrem-imamoglu","13":"tag-justice","14":"tag-merdan-yanardag","15":"tag-necati-ozkan","16":"tag-oppression","17":"tag-political-espionage","18":"tag-republican-peoples-party-chp","19":"tag-stockholm","20":"tag-sweden","21":"tag-the-information-and-communication-technologies-authority-btk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116568604365069463","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}