Turkish court senences famous preacher to 1075 years in prison

A Turkish religious cult leader, Adnan Oktar has been sentenced to a total of 1,075 years in prison for committing sex crimes with his female followers. A court in Istanbul slammed Oktar with the sentence on Monday, January 11, for 10 separate crimes, including sexual assault, sexual abuse of minors, fraud and attempted political and military espionage, according to Turkey-based Anadolu news agency.

The 64-year-old Oktar who is the head of a religious cult that is considered a criminal organization by prosecutors, was arrested with dozens of his followers in simultaneous nationwide raids in 2018. Some 236 suspects have been on trial in the case, 78 of whom are under arrest, with the hearings revealing lurid details and harrowing sex crime allegations. During the trial, Oktar reportedly told the presiding judge that he had close to 1,000 girlfriends and they were all very happy with him. According to the NTV broadcaster, Oktar was arrested in July 2018 and was accused of creating a criminal organization, the sexual abuse of children, sexual harassment, sexual relations with minors, kidnapping, rape, blackmail, the illegal imprisonment of people, military and political espionage, fraud through the use of religious beliefs and feelings of people, the violation of privacy, the falsification of documents and other crimes.“There is an overflowing of love in my heart for women. Love is a human quality. It is a quality of a Muslim. I am extraordinarily potent,” he said in another hearing.