A Turkish court has jailed four people on accusations of drug use, including the editor-in-chief of Habertürk TV, a major national news station, whom prosecutors say mixed drug use with sexual exploitation of women in his circle.
Habertürk TV is a privately owned broadcaster based in İstanbul that airs news and talk shows across Turkey and is seen as close to, or at least not hostile toward, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The court in İstanbul ordered Editor-in-Chief Mehmet Akif Ersoy and three other suspects jailed pending trial on December 11 in a case opened by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Prosecutors say the file centers on drug offenses under the Turkish Penal Code, saying that the suspects bought or kept narcotic or stimulant substances for personal use and provided a place and opportunity for others to use them.
İstanbul Provincial Gendarmerie units, which are part of the interior ministry and usually police rural areas, detained Ersoy on December 9 on the prosecutor’s orders and brought him to gendarmerie headquarters for questioning.
The same file covers several other people, including Habertürk TV foreign news editor Elif Kılınç, who were detained and later released under judicial supervision.
In a written referral that sent Ersoy and three co-suspects to court, prosecutors say the group allowed drugs to be used in private homes and supplied drugs to women who came there.
The document states that after drug use “more than two people” had sexual intercourse together and says that by involving women in their circle in this way the suspects gained “sectoral and material benefits” for themselves and their associates in the media world.
Prosecutors do not charge “group sex” as a crime but present these claims as part of a broader exploitation scheme that they say was built around drugs, sex and favors in the television sector.
Authorities have not yet published a full indictment, and no trial date has been set.
In his statement to investigators, reported by Turkish outlets, Ersoy denies using drugs and says all claims about group sex are “lies” and “very ugly accusations.”
He says he has never used narcotic or stimulant substances and insists that his personal relationships were normal romantic affairs, not part of any criminal plan.
He also says he previously filed a criminal complaint over similar anonymous allegations on social media, arguing that he is the target of a smear campaign.
Former Habertürk TV anchor Nur Köşker has gone public with accusations against Ersoy over long-term harassment and abuse of power during her time at the station.
Köşker says he sent late-night and early-morning messages about her body and legs, told her how to stand on set so viewers could see more of her legs, and used her on-air role to pressure her.
She says he told her that if she did not agree to his demands she would be taken off screen and made to sit at a desk “writing news,” and that she resigned from Habertürk TV and later left Turkey because of what she lived through.
Köşker says her experience reflects a wider problem in Turkish television, where women presenters feel they must accept unwanted advances from powerful men or risk losing their shows and sponsors.
Ersoy has not publicly responded to her detailed account, and his known denials so far focus on drugs and exploitation claims in the prosecutor’s file.
Pro-government commentator Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı said on X that Köşker and other women told him months ago about “darkness” at Habertürk and that he passed the material to authorities.
Kütahyalı wrote that “Nur Köşker is not alone” and claimed there are “other Nurs” who described threats framed as “either you have sex with me or you are finished,” although those women have not shared their stories in public.
A handle on X that says it speaks in the name of Habertürk staff has also accused Ersoy of leading a prostitution-style network in which some women allegedly received housing and job protection, while those who refused were sidelined, claims that courts have not tested.
Other social media users have tied the case to older stories about Ersoy’s private life and describe him as a long-term predator.
The case against Ersoy is part of a wider wave of criminal investigations this year that have hit media figures, businesspeople and celebrities who are not known as open critics of Erdoğan.
Analysts say these latest moves show a shift from targeting clear critics to reshaping power and money inside the system by using prosecutors, asset seizures and morality cases.
They also note that the İstanbul prosecutor has leaned on the gendarmerie in several high-profile files, including drugs cases involving television presenters and a separate money-laundering case against Can Holding, rather than using the city police.
Some commentators say this choice reflects concern that parts of the police, especially in İstanbul, are filled with hard-line officers seen as closer to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) than to Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
These critics argue that such officers may dislike the latest waves of arrests and could leak information or sabotage operations at the investigation stage, so authorities prefer to work with gendarmerie units that they view as more under central control.
The scandal at Habertürk follows a separate case in September in which İstanbul prosecutors opened a financial crimes probe into Can Holding, the private conglomerate that had recently bought Habertürk TV, general entertainment channel Show TV and business station Bloomberg HT.
Prosecutors in that case accused Can Holding executives of forming a criminal organization, laundering money and other offenses and obtained court orders to seize more than 100 companies, including the media group, a university and a chain of private schools.
The court handed these assets to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), a state body that is normally in charge of failed banks but that has, in recent years, been used to take over private companies and media outlets through court-appointed trustees.