Turkey court orders arrest of Istanbul’s jailed mayor for ‘political espionage’

ISTANBUL – A Turkish court has issued another formal arrest order for Istanbul’s jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on suspicion of “political espionage”, state-owned Anadolu news agency said on Oct 27, stepping up a long-running opposition crackdown.

Imamoglu, a key rival of President Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in jail since March pending trial on separate corruption charges, received a fresh jail sentence in July for insulting and threatening the chief Istanbul prosecutor.

Imamoglu denies all charges against him.

He denied the latest charge in court on Oct 26 and in a statement from prison on Oct 24.

“Such a slander, lie and conspiracy wouldn’t even cross the devil’s mind!” he said on X. “We are facing a shameful indecency that can’t be described with words.”

Anadolu said an Istanbul court issued the arrest order overnight for Imamoglu and two others, including Mr Merdan Yanardag, editor-in-chief of television news channel Tele1.

The channel, which is critical of the government, was seized by the state on Oct 24, citing the espionage accusations.

The latest court ruling accuses Imamoglu of engaging in graft to raise funds for his presidential candidacy and espionage to secure international support, the agency said.

Hundreds of members and elected leaders of Imamoglu’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) face an array of corruption-related charges in a crackdown the party calls politicised and anti-democratic.

The CHP denies graft accusations as a politicised attempt by the government to remove electoral threats against Mr Erdogan, a charge the government rejects.

But the opposition got some respite from the pressure on Oct 24, after another court dismissed a bid to to oust the CHP’S leader and annul its 2023 congress. REUTERS