Sedat Peker, a Turkish mafia boss who has been revealing information via videos and tweets on alleged corruption and criminal activity around circles in and close to the Turkish government since May, has lost his access to the Internet in his safe house in the United Arab Emirates, journalist Erk Acarer announced on Thursday.
“Two days ago (Peker) had relayed to me an important matter and said he would make some posts on it,” Acarer tweeted. “I believe he no longer has a chance to relay this, so I believe it appropriate to let the public know of that talk and the information.”
Businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala, who has been behind bars for four years, had refrained from selling one of his companies to an investor from the United States at the behest of Korkut Eken, a former military intelligence official who had ties to the mafia and extrajudicial killings, Acarer said.
According to the journalist, via Sedat Peker, Eken asked Kavala to sell his company that focused on software for fighter jets to a Turkish company instead and at a cheaper price.
The sale went through, at a quarter of the price Kavala had set for the American investors. Peker told Acarer that he did not receive a commission for relaying the request, but that Eken made $200,000 in the deal.
“Businessmen who promote themselves as religious and Turkish nationalist then sold $3 million’s worth of goods to the Defence Industries Presidency for $50 million. And Kavala is the spy? I cannot fathom this,” Peker told Acarer.
“On one hand there are the pious, ‘national’ business people. On the other, Osman Kavala, who you accused of espionage, and placed in the middle of baseless accusations about Gezi,” the mobster continued.
When Kavala was first arrested in November 2017, he was accused of having funded the massive nationwide anti-government protests of 2013, named after the Gezi Park that they started in. Hours after he was acquitted of the charges of plotting a coup, a court-ordered his arrest again, this time on charges of espionage.
On Friday Kavala faced a judge again in another case related to the Gezi protests. The court ruled for the continuation of his detention.