Prosecutors reviewing the indictment materials state that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) documented alleged connections between a principal figure in a political espionage investigation and a number of foreign intelligence operatives. The inquiry targets former Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, accused of authorizing an election-related data operation in which personal data belonging to millions of citizens was purportedly harvested. The prosecution alleges the operation was executed by businessman Hüseyin Gün, whom officials contend was operating under the guise of private activity.
It is reported that the indictment incorporated two analytical reports compiled by the MIT. Claims were made that the conclusions in these reports correspond with evidence gathered independently by police investigators. Per the first report, Gün was in contact with Christopher Paul McGrath, a former intelligence official who later transitioned to the private sector. McGrath had served earlier with Britain’s technical intelligence service and then assumed executive roles in firms dealing with maritime technology and risk analysis, the materials note.
The report also cites several other names: David Frank Richmond, a former director of Britain’s MI6; Joseph Charles French, who led the Defence Intelligence branch in the UK Ministry of Defence between 2000 and 2003; Fiona Hill, the former Senior Director for Europe and Russia on the U.S. National Security Council and Deputy Assistant to President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019; David Meydan, former deputy head of the International Relations and Operational Cooperation Division at Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations; and David John Charters, an MI6 officer with Britain’s foreign intelligence service, whom Gün described in phone calls as a “close friend of former MI6 chief Richard Moore.”