Several thousand people in Turkey’s two largest cities, Ankara and Istanbul, have been protesting against the 25-year prison sentence handed down to opposition lawmaker Kadri Enis Berberoğlu on spying charges.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkish opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) addressed the crowd:

“For the future of this country, for the future of our children, we have to fight together. Our march has no links to a political party, this march is a blessed march.”

The 68-year-old leader has embarked on a 425-kilometre march from the capital Ankara to the Istanbul jail where Berberoglu is being held.

The Istanbul court on Wednesday sentenced Berberoglu on charges of giving an opposition newspaper a video purporting to show Turkey’s intelligence agency trucking weapons into Syria.

Outside the prison in Istanbul, supporters with their banners and placards gathered amid tight security.