Turkish police on Friday detained journalist Murat Ağırel and four others, including family members of opposition lawmaker Mustafa Sarıgül, as part of an investigation into suspected money laundering involving transactions worth millions of euros, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Among those detained were politician Aylin Kotil, Sarıgül’s former wife, and their son Ömer Sarıgül. Police were also searching for Sarıgül’s other son, Emir, according to Anadolu.
The investigation began after two German nationals accused a group of people of using companies in Turkey and abroad to move large sums of money whose origins were unclear, according to the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The complainants described several transactions, including an €80 million contract, a €100 million funds transfer and the sale of a yacht for €1.5 million.
They also alleged that arrangements had been made to transfer as much as €1 billion abroad through a loan secured using political influence.
The two German nationals also claimed they had given documents about the transactions to Ağırel and were subsequently threatened after the information reached people implicated in their allegations.
Prosecutors said their statements, recordings and other evidence gathered during the investigation formed the basis for the detention orders.
Allegations concerning Mustafa Sarıgül, an Erzincan lawmaker from the main opposition New Party, will be sent to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for separate consideration, prosecutors said.
Sarıgül denied the allegations in a statement on X on Friday, describing the case as a commercial dispute and questioning the authenticity of the documents submitted by the complainants.
“The matter is a commercial business dispute. The allegations made by the other side are untrue. The source and authenticity of the documents are questionable,” Sarıgül said.
He said the complainants had approached Ağırel before the investigation in an attempt to have their allegations reported and that the journalist had become involved while trying to establish whether the claims were true.
Sarıgül said his family members would provide investigators with all relevant information and documents and called for respect for the presumption of innocence while the investigation continues.
Ağırel, meanwhile, rejected the suggestion that he had reported the allegations, saying in a message shared by Onlar TV that he was accustomed to being detained over stories he had written but that this was the first time he had been detained over one he had not written.
Ağırel was detained at his home while already under house arrest in a separate case concerning his reporting on an investment fund crisis that erupted in mid-September, triggering a sharp selloff on Turkey’s stock market and investigations into suspected market manipulation.
The crisis has also drawn scrutiny to alleged financial dealings involving politically connected individuals. Former family minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya resigned from her senior position in President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in September following allegations that she and her husband had profited from stock transactions before the market turmoil. Both denied receiving privileged information.
Ağırel and fellow journalist İsmail Saymaz were put under house arrest last week over their reporting on alleged political connections to the fund scandal, while journalists Mustafa Balcı and Şaban Sevinç were jailed pending trial. All four face accusations of publicly disseminating misleading information.
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