News in the case and , who was the mayor of Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, who was also the leader of the social democratic party CHP, but who remains the only person who is believed capable of defeating the current president Recep Tayipp Erdogan at the polls. The former councilor has received a series of good and bad news these days. The first, after being imprisoned since last March, has been acquitted of one of the two accusations against him, that of corruption. The other news is that he will continue to be imprisoned and charged with two new alleged crimes.
It is because, despite being declared acquitted of the alleged manipulation of bids because “the legal elements of the crime were not verified”, in parallel he has been accused of two new crimes that come after the arrests of Necati Özkan, a campaign advisor, the director of the opposition television channel ‘TELE1’, Merdan Yanardag. Both have given statements throughout the day from yesterday until Monday.
Imamoglu, who two days ago was acquitted of one of the biggest cases against him, is now being investigated for alleged “political espionage” and for selling citizen data for “transmitting personal data of citizens in Istanbul to foreign intelligence agencies and similar acts.” The Istanbul District Prosecutor’s Office believes that the motive for this alleged crime was to “create funds for his presidential campaign.” The accused has considered that such accusations constitute the “most serious insult” he has received in his life and has ironically commented that.
Imamoglu: acquitted of corruption, but convicted of insulting the prosecutor
In this sense, and in the midst of the CHP warning of interference by the Erdogan Government through the courts to get rid of whom the polls place as the only politician in years, Imamoglu was acquitted of the alleged manipulation of bids, but was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
Specifically, a sentence of 18 months in prison for the charge of insulting the prosecutor, while another two have been sentenced for threats. Yes, he has been acquitted of another accusation in this specific series of charges, that of “signing a person involved in the fight against terrorism.” It should be noted that the prosecutor’s office was not asking for 20 months in prison, but rather a sentence of between 2 to 7 years, in addition to political disqualification, a constant that appears in all the accusations against Imamoglu and that would mean deactivating the option of his face on the ballots in the next general elections.
“Is it forbidden to speak while looking at the prosecutor? I’m not interested in looking at him”
Ikram Imamoglu (CHP), former mayor of Istanbul, after criticism from the prosecutor
But what had Imamoglu told chief prosecutor Akın Gürlek? These were the statements: “Look, Chief Prosecutor, I tell you we can’t do you any good, your mind is rotten. We will remove the ruling mind from the mind of this nation to save even your children. Don’t forget.” That was only the prelude to what happened during the court hearing. “Don’t talk while looking at me,” the prosecutor reproached him during Imamoglu’s turn to defend himself. The former mayor of Istanbul drew applause in the room with his response: “Is it forbidden to speak while looking at the prosecutor?” He did not wait for the answer and told the prosecutor that “I’m not interested in looking at him.”
But those were also the moments before a speech in which, instead of defending himself personally, he spoke about the other detainees and began to list the various economic and social problems in Turkey. “My speech will be as brief as life,” he said, to continue with some words that have gone viral in Turkey: “We are not afraid, we are worried. Because this country deserves justice.”
“Political espionage?” and “sale of personal data”?
To understand this new accusation that arises when the social democratic leader’s judicial horizon began to clear, we must go back to the investigation into Hüseyin Gün, arrested in July. The Turkish Prosecutor’s Office points out that Gün, who had worked with the campaign advisor, Necati Özkan, maintained links with the organization of the opposition cleric Fethüllah Gülen – who is accused of being behind the alleged 2016 coup attempt – and with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Imamoglu had already been arrested for alleged links with the PKK, an armed group and pro-Kurdish insurgency that, among other things, ceased to exist this weekend upon completion of the agreed and negotiated disarmament. But now he is accused of contacts with foreign intelligence services and terrorist groups through Gün. As for the third detainee, journalist Merdan Yanardag, he has been charged because he was responsible for the media strategy. They are accused of having sent voter information to these foreign groups.
On the other hand is the accusation for alleged sale of personal data that was obtained through two mobile applications developed by the mayor of Istanbul. In this area, Imamoglu is accused of illegally selling the personal data of 4.7 million users who would have been sent “to two different foreign countries”, in addition to those of some 3.7 million users who, in this case, would have been “sold on the ‘dark web'”.
