A man posing as a healer and religious scholar in southwestern Turkey's Muğla province faces up to 84 years in jail over accusations of abusing women and forcing them into sexual intercourse through so-called "exorcising" sessions, with prosecutors seeking up to 40 years for his wife and accomplice over fraud through abuse of religious sentiments.
Acting on an investigation by the Fethiye Public Prosecutor's Office, units from the provincial organized crime department detained a suspect identified with his initials as B.K. last year on Sept. 22. According to the indictment, police found sexually explicit images and footage of 727 men and women in a hard disk belonging to B.K., in addition to videos and pictures of 833 women found inside a folder on his computer. Similar digital material was also found on his aide A.Ç.'s mobile phone.
During raids to B.K.'s home and business addresses, police found two unlicensed handguns, one prop gun, one handcuff, four shotguns and 87 cartridges, one machete, one nunchaku, 12 bullets, one metal detector and 20 ancient coins believed to be historical artifacts. Various items such as an ox horn, turtle shells, tarot cards, amulets, various books and liquids believed to have been used during the "sorcery" and "exorcising" sessions were also found during the raids.
B.K.'s wife Ş.K. and his aide A.Ç. were also detained but were later released under judicial control.
The indictment quoted victims saying that they asked for B.K.'s help for psychological issues as he posed himself as a religious scholar or hodja, as a personal trainer and a psychic. According to the statement, B.K. told them that their bodies were possessed by djinns and forced them to have sexual intercourse for exorcism, secretly videotaping them to later use for blackmail.
The suspect was even found charging money from some of these women for sexual intercourse during these sessions and attacked others as they refused to pay him.
B.K. defended himself by saying the footage seized from his home belong to bioenergy sessions, prayers, and music, along with his paid and unpaid sexual intercourse with strangers and "special" friends. The suspect also claimed that his speeches and the drawings seen in the videos, and the purpose of their shooting, are all for "fantasy."
