The mayor of Istanbul’s biggest district was detained on Wednesday on charges of being a member of the PKK terrorist group, Paralel.Az reports citing Daily Sabah.

Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer was taken into custody at his home early in the morning after the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office found strong evidence he committed the said crime as a result of an investigation into his phone records, physical surveillance, bank account activities and sustained organic contact with PKK ringleaders.

Authorities searched Özer’s house, office and vehicle, and seized documents regarding his appointment in the PKK’s so-called democratic autonomy project during a meeting with the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan on the prison island Imrali. The said appointment is also mentioned in organizational documents seized from other PKK suspects and delivered to the PKK stronghold in northern Iraq’s Qandil region.

Prosecutors ordered Özer’s phone to be wiretapped, which revealed the mayor held phone calls with 694 suspects linked to the PKK, as well as Remzi Kartal, a senior PKK member wanted in the red category with whom he spoke 14 times, over the course of a decade.