Mafia leader says prisons director visited him in jail upon Erdoğan's instructions

Duvar English 

Mafia leader Sedat Peker has said that the director general of Turkey's Prisons and Detention Houses had previously visited him in prison upon the instructions of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“When I was incarcerated in Silivri Prison, the director general of the Prisons and Detention Houses visited me. We held a private talk. This has never before happened in the history of the republic. The director general of the Prisons and Detention Houses had been sent by Tayyip Brother [President],” Peker tweeted on June 11.

Peker said that security camera recordings would prove his statement and called on authorities to analyze them. “When I was having a private talk with the director general of the Prisons and Detention Houses (a very important man), the prison's prosecutors and directors were waiting outside,” Peker said.

Released from jail in 2014, Peker has been in and out of prison since his early ages.

The last time he served in prison was over the Ergenekon case. In 2013, he was sentenced to 10 years in jail, but the government's decision to vacate the Ergenekon verdicts led to the mafia leader's release from Silivri Prison in 2014.

After it recently came to light that a group of main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) lawmakers had visited Peker in Silivri Prison in 2013, Peker said it was not just CHP lawmakers, but also Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) lawmakers who had visited him during his time in prison.

Peker said that internet trolls linked to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were trying to manipulate the public by bringing up the prison visitation of CHP MPs Özgür Özel and Veli Ağbaba to the agenda and that he had also received a visitation from MHP lawmakers while in prison.

After his release from prison in 2014, the ultranationalist mafia leader started to organize rallies in support of the AKP, during which he threatened Erdoğan's opponents.

During this time period, he was treated like a respectable businessman by the government and the country's celebrities.

In 2015, Peker was even pictured with Erdoğan during the wedding of an infamous pro-government social media troll.

However, the mafia leader and AKP have recently fallen out, as the former has been releasing YouTube videos from his stated base in Dubai, making bombshell allegations in an apparent bid to settle scores with political figures.