Espionage indictment proves to be baseless

Timur Soykan

The investigation into Ekrem İmamoğlu, Necati Özkan, Merdan Yanardağ and Hüseyin Gün, who were accused of political espionage, has been completed. An indictment has been prepared. Prison sentences ranging from 15 to 20 years have been requested for the crimes of “political espionage”.

I truly cannot believe that a country could become accustomed to this.

The elected mayor of Istanbul, Turkey's largest city and one of the world's largest cities, with a population of 16 million, is being accused of espionage and arrested. This is an unbelievable accusation, a terrible charge. But it is not even making enough of an impact in the country.

I examined the process leading up to this indictment. I read the interrogation records and examined the section included in the İBB indictment. And I tried to guess what new things they could add to the indictment.

Upon reading the indictment, we see that no new information or findings have been added.

"ISTANBUL IS YOURS" COULD NOT BE CONNECTED

The question I was most curious about was: How will they combine the accusations made through the “İstanbul Senin” (Istanbul is Yours) application, which was implemented in November 2021 with the claim that ibb.gov.tr data was leaked in 2019?

Reading the indictment, I was astonished; they hadn't combined them. The “İstanbul Senin” application is mentioned only once in the indictment, and that is as the subject of another investigation. In the main indictment of the İBB case, the “İstanbul Senin” application was accused of “giving, disseminating or obtaining personal data”.

However, for days, the pro-government media reported that data from ibb.gov.tr and the İstanbul Senin app had been transferred abroad, with headlines blaring about espionage in large print. Now these have been forgotten, and no apologies will be made for those headlines.

POLITICAL INDICTMENT CONFESSION

Because both the news reports and the espionage indictment were written entirely to serve the needs of the regime. In fact, while there is no evidence whatsoever to support the espionage charge in the indictment, the political motivation is glaringly obvious.

The indictment stated exactly as follows:

‘In light of all the information, documents and explanations, it has been understood that the crime of Political Espionage was committed with the aim of gaining influence in the politics of our country, particularly in Istanbul, by ensuring the election victory of the suspect Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was supported by manipulating the 20219 local elections, and that activities were carried out to this end.’

As in the main indictment of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, the prosecution presents engaging in politics and seeking influence in politics as a crime. In this case, one could demand that all politicians be imprisoned without exception.

IT STARTED WITH A REPORT TO 112

Upon hearing an accusation like espionage, you might assume that the espionage activities were identified through intelligence work.

That was not the case. On the contrary, it began with a report to 112. Hüseyin Gün, a British citizen with IT companies abroad, had stayed for a period at the home of Seher Alaçam, a businesswoman he called his spiritual mother. After Seher Alaçam's death, the feud between him and her son, Ümit Deniz Alaçam, intensified. Ümit Deniz Alaçam reported Hüseyin Gün, claiming he was an agent who organised coups in many countries. Following this statement, which largely amounted to a conspiracy theory, Hüseyin Gün was arrested in July 2025. Among his connections in the UK and various other countries were intelligence agents. This created a mystery of espionage that extended to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. A significant part of the indictment consists of Ümit Deniz Alaçam's statement describing his conspiracy theories.

SUMMARY OF THE CHARGES

So, what is the main charge in the 162-page “Political Espionage” indictment? It is such a hollow accusation that it is very easy to summarise:

‘Imamoğlu's advisor Necati Özkan gave the data on ibb.gov.tr to Hüseyin Gün. Hüseyin Gün then sent it to his partner at his company in the US, former CIA agent Aaron Barr, who took it abroad. Using this data, they ensured that İmamoğlu won the 2019 local elections.’

You would naturally assume that, according to the prosecution, this was the result of months or years of intelligence activities designed to win an election...

No, it wasn't.

Hüseyin Gün and Necati Özkan only met 10 days before the 23 June 2019 elections, which were held to replace the cancelled 31 March 2019 elections. The indictment clearly states this.

You might believe the mystery of the agent in this claim?

But Aaron Barr, a former CIA employee, made headlines in the US media after moving to a private company, claiming to have identified the leaders of the international hacker group Anonymous. He was later discredited when it emerged that the names he provided had no connection to Anonymous.

NO ADMISSION OF SPYING

If you look at past pro-government media reports, you might think that Hüseyin Gün, taking advantage of effective repentance, confessed to being a spy and to spying with the defendants working at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

No, there is no such confession. He neither confesses to being a spy nor makes any claim that the other defendants in the indictment are spies. On the contrary, he states that they are not spies.

When Hüseyin Gün is called a confessor, did you think he confessed to the intelligence organisations that gave him instructions?

No... He explained that, at the request of his spiritual mother, businesswoman Seher Alaçam, he met with Necati Özkan and offered to support his election campaign.

WHAT DID HÜSEYİN GÜN SAY?

So, if Hüseyin Gün did not confess to espionage, what did he say?

He only says that they obtained data from ibb.gov.tr and analysed it using software belonging to his company, then sent it to Necati Özkan.

When you hear such a serious accusation as “espionage”, you might assume that it has been proven that the data from ibb.gov.tr was sent to Hüseyin Gün by Istanbul Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu or his advisor Necati Özkan.

No, that's not true either. In fact, even Hüseyin Gün, who is said to be a confessor, does not make such a claim. On the contrary, Hüseyin Gün says that he requested the data from ibb.gov.tr and that Necati Özkan asked him, ‘Have you looked at OSTIN, which is an open source?’ Hüseyin Gün, who explains that his own company found this data by looking at OSTIN, says, ‘I don't know if Necati Özkan uploaded this data or if hackers stole it and put it here.’ Indeed, OSTIN contains the email information not only of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality but also of many companies and institutions. This is because hackers sell the data they obtain on this platform. This is a fact known to everyone familiar with information technology. In fact, the data found here even includes the email addresses of İBB employees from 2015, which strengthens the possibility that the data was placed here years before İmamoğlu won the election.

But the prosecution makes the following assertion without any evidence whatsoever:

Necati Özkan uploaded the data from ibb.gov.tr to OSTİN on the instructions of Ekrem İmamoğlu. Evidence? None. We now have a judiciary where prosecutors can make accusations without evidence.

A LITTLE MYSTERY, A LITTLE FICTION

If you look at the pro-government media and the indictment, you would think that Hüseyin Gün sent it to Necati Özkan via a highly secret spyware called Wickr.

This is also not true. Downloading Wickr from virtual stores to your phone takes a few minutes and is available to everyone.

Did you think that very important reports that would win Necati Özkan the election were sent via Wickr?

You are mistaken again.

The indictment contains screenshots of messages allegedly sent by Hüseyin Gün to the Wickr account used by Necati Özkan.

The vast majority of these reports consist of suggestions that would be made to Ekrem İmamoğlu if he visited a neighbourhood café. The reports that Hüseyin Gün claims to have prepared using software from his company in the US are simply laughable. But the indictment claims that these reports won Ekrem İmamoğlu the election. Just reading these messages is enough to refute the indictment. Moreover, the prosecutor who included screenshots of these ridiculous messages in the indictment comments on them as “Hüseyin Gün's instructions to Necati Özkan” without any basis.

İMAMOĞLU'S RESPONSE

There is also an anecdote. In the messages, which are screenshots in the indictment, Hüseyin Gün tells Ekrem İmamoğlu to take into account voters who are religiously sensitive. When asked about this message, Ekrem İmamoğlu said in his statement:

"I started reading the Quran when I was 6 years old. Is someone who is alleged to be an intelligence officer going to teach me how to behave towards the conservative segment? This is illogical."

The prosecution claims that these messages manipulated the 2019 Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality elections. If the election result can be changed with these messages, then winning an election must be the easiest thing in the world.

NO INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATION

Given that such a serious accusation as espionage has been levelled, it is normal to assume that the state's confidential information and highly important data have been transferred to foreign intelligence organisations.

But there is no such finding. The indictment makes no mention of any confidential state documents or information. There are only unsubstantiated claims regarding ibb.gov.tr data.

Of course, you might think, “The money transactions between Ekrem İmamoğlu and Necati Özkan, who run the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, and Hüseyin Gün did not escape the state's attention”.

There is no money traffic. In fact, Hüseyin Gün clearly states that he never received any money. There is no such finding in the MASAK report either.

Furthermore, the statements of Ekrem İmamoğlu, Necati Özkan, and Hüseyin Gün allegedly claimed that espionage activities continued after the election, and that a meeting was even held with Hüseyin Gün on 20 August 2019 regarding this matter.

SOCIAL AID MEETING EMERGED

Seeing the headlines on this topic in the pro-government media, you might assume that the prosecution found evidence of espionage.

However, the indictment also states that this claim is unfounded. This is because evidence showing the exact opposite has been included in the indictment.

In his statement of sincere remorse, which was not a confession of espionage, Hüseyin Gün had already stated that this meeting was related to the identification and organisation of the İBB's social assistance programmes. Hüseyin Gün's notes included in the indictment clearly state that the subject of this meeting was social assistance. In his presentation, Hüseyin Gün argued that his social media analysis programme could be used to identify which social assistance programmes were needed in which areas.

“LIKE A LEECH” NOT INCLUDED IN THE INDICTMENT

Necati Özkan, in his statement, said the following about this presentation:

‘The presentation was below par even compared to companies working in the same sector in Turkey. While companies doing this work in Turkey charge 400-500 dollars, Hüseyin Gün wanted 3-4 million dollars. That's why we rejected the offer.’

Other İBB IT managers who testified in this investigation also stated that Necati Özkan said about Hüseyin Gün, ‘He's like a leech, let's listen and send him away.’ Messages proving this were even included in the file. But these parts were not included in the indictment.

SLANDER AGAINST MERDAN YANARDAĞ

The section of the indictment concerning journalist Merdan Yanardağ is particularly troubling. Hüseyin Gün's mother, Seher Alaçam, made a donation to Tele1, where Merdan Yanardağ was the editor-in-chief. For this reason, they met with Merdan Yanardağ.

In his statement, Hüseyin Gün explains that after Seher Alaçam's death, he saw Merdan Yanardağ as his mother's legacy and made donations to Tele1. It is impossible to understand how the indictment could have concluded that Hüseyin Gün and Merdan Yanardağ were spies based on their messages. These messages consist of Merdan Yanardağ and Hüseyin Gün making political analyses, sharing their predictions for the future, and even criticising the CHP on many occasions. Although Merdan Yanardağ clearly maintains journalistic distance in these messages, the prosecution has been able to claim that Hüseyin Gün gave instructions to the veteran journalist. Merdan Yanardağ, who has spent his life fighting for the full independence of this country and has written numerous books on the subject, has been accused of espionage without any evidence or basis whatsoever. Seeing this indictment, it is crystal clear that the sole aim is to seize control of Tele1.

Following the appointment of a trustee to TELE1, Tele2, which was established afterwards, is under pressure to obtain a licence.

In short, we are living in a dystopia in Turkey where reason and logic no longer exist. Based solely on scenarios, interpretations of intent, and conspiracy theories, Istanbul Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Necati Özkan, and journalist Merdan Yanardağ are in prison. There is not even evidence to imprison Hüseyin Gün for a single day.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Casusluk iddianamesi fos çıktı, published in BirGün newspaper on February 6, 2026.