• Arrested Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu rejected espionage charges at the start of his trial, calling them ‘garbage’.
  • The prosecution accuses Imamoglu and three others of passing millions of personal data of Istanbul residents to foreign intelligence services.
  • Imamoglu asked whether it is a crime to win the election in Istanbul and engage in politics, accusing the court of political motivation.
  • Imamoglu has been in detention since March 2025, arrested days before his planned nomination as presidential candidate for the opposition CHP.
  • He also faces a large corruption trial with 413 co-defendants, facing over 2,400 years in prison if convicted.
  • Imamoglu and his supporters accuse the Turkish government of being behind the proceedings.

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