Turkey has sent a request to the United Arab Emirates to detain and repatriate Sedat Peker, a convicted Turkish mob boss, after Interpol issued a red notice for him, according to the state-owned Anadolu news agency.
The agency said on Wednesday that the country’s ministry of justice made the move after the notice was issued by the international organisation on February 1.
Peker, 50, rose to prominence in the 1990s as a gang figure and was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2007 for crimes including forming and leading a criminal gang. He was released several years ago.
Turkish authorities began another investigation into Peker in April last year. Soon after, he drew millions of viewers on YouTube when he began sharing videos in which he made corruption and criminal allegations against top officials in the Turkish government. Ankara has denied the allegations.
The videos were filmed in the UAE, with which Turkey has recently worked to mend long-strained relations, after being on the opposite sides of a number of regional issues in the last decade.
Peker was questioned by Dubai police in June but was later released. He has not posted any videos since last summer, saying that the UAE had asked him to refrain from doing so.
Although he was active on Twitter even after the videos stopped, Peker has not tweeted since the end of November.
Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was welcomed with a large ceremony in the UAE as he visited the Gulf country to mark an end to the period of animosity. The countries signed a flurry of economic agreements during his trip.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES
