Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Turkey targets televangelist, followers
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish police on Wednesday detained an Islamic televangelist and were seeking hundreds of people linked to him, accusing them of a variety of crimes.
Istanbul police said warrants were issued against Adnan Oktar and 234 of his followers and that financial-crime units were carrying out operations in Istanbul and four other cities to detain them.
Oktar was detained in his villa in Istanbul’s Cengelkoy district, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Anadolu said 79 of the suspects had been arrested as of Wednesday.
Police said accusations against Oktar and his group include forming a gang with criminal intent, sexual abuse of minors, sexual assault, kidnapping, blackmail, fraud, money laundering and exploitation of religious sentiments.