Turkey charges TV star manager over alleged govt 'overthrow' attempt

Turkish prosecutors have formally charged a renowned manager of television stars with "attempting to overthrow the government", the Anadolu news agency said Tuesday, in a case critics say is a move by authorities to use the judiciary to silence opponents.

Ayse Barim was arrested in January over allegations dating to 2013, when protests erupted over the government's urbanisation plans for Gezi Park in Istanbul, sparking a wave of demonstrations against Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time.

Prosecutors accused her of "pushing" her actors to take part in the anti-government demos, a claim she denies.

"A charge has been prepared against Ayse Barim demanding up to 30 years in prison for helping an attempt to overthrow the government of the republic of Turkey," the state-run Anadolu cited the prosecutors as saying.

She was also charged over her supposed lines to Osman Kavala, a philanthropist and leading critic of Erdogan's who is serving a life sentence after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the government and financing the Gezi Park protests.

Barim, 56, is suffering from heart problems and was recently hospitalised, her lawyer says.

Turkish authorities regularly target journalists, lawyers and elected political representatives, especially since the failed 2016 coup against the government.

On Saturday, prosecutors said they had issued arrest warrants for 53 people, 47 of whom had been detained, over a corruption probe into Istanbul's popular opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was himself arrested last month.

Imamoglu's detention sparked huge crowds rallying in nightly protests that quickly spread across the country in what became Turkey's biggest wave of unrest since 2013.