ISTANBUL, Turkey — An
Istanbul court Wednesday sentenced a Turkish cult televangelist who
surrounded himself with scantily clad women he called “kittens” to 8,658 years
in prison in a retrial, local media reported.
اضافة اعلان
Adnan Oktar led
television programs surrounded by women wearing lots of makeup and little
clothes as he preached creationism and conservative values.
Last year, the
66-year-old was sentenced to 1,075 years for crimes including sexual assault,
sexual abuse of minors, fraud, and attempted political and military espionage.
But that ruling was
overturned by an upper court.
During the retrial,
Istanbul high criminal court sentenced Oktar to 8,658 years in prison on
several charges including sexual abuse and depriving someone of their liberty,
the Anadolu news agency reported.
The court also
sentenced 10 other suspects to 8,658 years in prison each, the agency said.
Oktar gained
notoriety for his programs on the online A9 television channel and had
regularly been denounced by Turkey’s religious leaders.
In a major
crackdown on his group, he was taken into custody in Istanbul in 2018 as part of
a probe by the city’s police financial crimes unit.
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