Sedat Peker, (b. June 26, 1971, Sakarya), Turkish organized crime boss.[1]
Born in Sakarya to a family originally from Rize, Peker spent considerable time in Germany. He is a noted Turanist.
He was indicted for the murder of the Smuggler Abdullah Topçu, tried and spoken free. The two other defendants in the same case, considered to be Peker's employees, were sentenced to lifelong imprisonment.
After this, he fled to Romania and was sought for, amongst others, protection racketeering, coercion, and incitement to murder. During this time it was reported that he had been visited by a minister and a member of parliament from the Motherland Party and guaranteed, in return for an unknown favor, to be only imprisoned for a short period of time.[2]
On August 18, 1998 Peker was brought to Turkey of his own free will and surrendered to the authorities. The case against him was opened in September 1998. He pled guilty to the crimes for which he was accused and was found guilty of building a criminal organization. During the trial, Peker made some interesting remarks, which he never cleared up: " An older member of parliament sent me and sms which said, I shouldn't behave too arrogantly. I would like to tell you (the court) everything, because if I don't it could come to pass that I commit suicide under suspicious circumstances." Despite the fact that the Prosecutors demands for a sentence above 7.5 years, Peker was only sentenced to eight months and 29 days and was released on May 14, 1999.
On May 12, 2005 he was arrested during Operation Butterfly. On January 31, 2007 he was found guilty of building and leading a criminal organization, robbery, forgery, and two counts of false imprisonment.[3][4]
On May 30, 2008, during his incarceration, Peker married his lawyer, Özge Yılmaz in prison.[5]
Peker is allegedly a member of the underground Turkish organiztion Ergenekon. The related Ergenekon trials are still underway.[6]