Media rights groups on Sunday urged Turkish authorities to investigate explosive allegations by a mafia boss about the high-profile killings of two journalists in the 1990s.
Sedat Peker, an underworld mobster exiled abroad, has accused members of the government and the ruling Justice and Development Party, known by its acronym AKP, of corruption and various crimes in a series of YouTube posts over the past three weeks.
In the latest, released on Sunday, he says that former Turkish minister of the interior Mehmet Agar was the head of the “deep state” in Turkey and that Agar was involved in the 1993 murder of prominent investigative journalist Ugur Mumcu.
Mumcu, who wrote for the Cumhuriyet daily, was killed in the capital, Ankara, after his car was rigged to explode when the ignition was switched on. The perpetrators were never identified.
In his video recording, Peker called Mumcu a “martyr” and a “honourable man.”
The mafia boss also said that the murder of Turkish Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adali had been ordered by Korkut Eken, a former lieutenant colonel and a senior National Intelligence Organization official.
Adali, who worked for the left-wing Yeni Duzen newspaper in Nicosia, was shot and killed in front of his home in 1996. His killers have never been identified.
Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Erol Onderoglu said Peker’s allegations needed to be investigated.
The truth about the killings of journalists in the 1990s had been “swept under the rug,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Peker’s legitimacy or position does not justify silence. #Impunity,” he added.
The Turkish Journalists’ Union called for answers.
“We want an investigation into the #UgurMumcu and #KutluAdali murders,” the union wrote on Twitter. “We demand that the suspects be put on trial. We call on prosecutors to do their duty.”
Peker, 50, who has been jailed several times for a range of offenses, from fraud to running a criminal group, fled Turkey last year to avoid prosecution and is thought to be living in the United Arab Emirates.
In the same video, Peker also said that the son of former Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim was part of a major drug trafficking ring between Venezuela and Turkey.
“This is absolutely a lie, a slander,” Yildirim told reporters. “Linking us with drugs is completely an insult. We strongly reject them.”
In another video, Peker said that Turkish Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu offered him protection and tipped him off about an impending investigation against him last year, which allowed him to flee before being arrested.
Soylu is one of the most powerful figures in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. Despite pressure from the opposition to resign, he has dismissed Peker’s allegations.
A journalist for Turkey’s state news agency Anadolu was fired on Friday after raising Peker’s claims against the interior minister at a government news conference with other ministers.
Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish presidency’s director of communications, wrote on Twitter: “Those who seek to harm the respectability of our state will pay the price.”
There was no immediate reaction to the latest claims.
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