Imprisoned Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has been charged with espionage in a new court case concerning Turkey’s 2019 local elections. The charge was, announced Sunday (October 26), also included journalist Merdan Yanardağ and Necati Özkan, one of the mayor’s advisors.

İmamoğlu has been in prison since March 19th, when he was detained in a corruption probe. The mayor’s arrest triggered Turkey’s largest protests in over a decade.

In an October 24th announcement regarding an ongoing espionage investigation, the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor accused İmamoğlu and Özkan of conspiring with his aid Hüseyin Gün, a suspect detained in early July accused of communication with foreign intelligence agencies.

In the Chief Prosecutor’s announcement, İmamoğlu and Özkan were accused of “contact with foreign intelligence agencies with the goal of manipulating election results” in Turkey’s 2019 local elections, in which İmamoğlu won the Istanbul mayorship.

The announcement also specified the alleged motive of İmamoğlu and Özkan’s espionage as being “generating funds for the presidential candidacy of criminal group leader Ekrem İmamoğlu”.

Shortly after his March 19th arrest, İmamoğlu was officially nominated as the presidential candidate of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

In his defense statement, İmamoğlu said he was the victim of conspiracy theory, saying: “I am being confronted with........

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