Turkish court blocks access to report exposing con man set to run for parliament

Turkish court blocks access to report exposing con man set to run for parliament
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AKP recently registered Dogan Celik, convicted of coercion and bribery, as a candidate for nomination for the coming parliamentary elections on 14 May.

Access to a news report about a con man, who was recently accepted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) as a candidate for nomination for the coming parliamentary elections, was blocked by the decision of a Turkish court, Free Web Turkey said on Thursday.

"Baris Terkoglu's article on Dogan Celik, a convict who had introduced himself to people as a member of the Turkish National Intelligence Agency, who wandered around showing fake IDs of judges and prosecutors, and who was recently accepted by AKP as a candidate for nomination for the parliamentary elections, was blocked to access by Ankara's 7th Criminal Court of Peace, less than 12 hours after the article has been published online.

Dogan Celik was found guilty of "coercion" and "bribery" in 2008, and was arrested over charges including "bribery," "forgery" and "fraud" in 2020. He was recently registered by AKP as a candidate for nomination in Istanbul for the parliamentary elections.

Turkey's state news agency had unwittingly presented Celik as a philanthropist businessman on 31 March 2021.

It said that a luxurious country house where former president and military coup leader Kenan Evren had lived for 17 years would be turned into a museum of democracy after it has been "purchased by Dogan Celik who is the chairman of the board of a company."

It added:

"Celik, whose elder brother Idris celik - a non-commissioned military officer - was martyred in a terror attack in 1993, inspected the work that is being carried out in the building.