Turkish prosecutors summon journalist for looking into Soylu's nephew's luxury car

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Journalist Baransel Ağca was called to give a statement for reporting on Interior Miniter Süleyman Soylu's nephew Hasan Berk Işık's use of a luxury vehicle with a license plate that matched the minister's.

Ağca had reported on connections between the minister's nephew, the luxury car he was photographed with and a private company owned by a close associate of the minister. 

Soylu's nephew Işık was photographed sitting on the bumper of a Chevrolet Camaro with the license plate "SS," and the ownership of the car was revealed to belong to a company owned by İsmet Çelik, a longtime friend of Soylu who had also opened a dormitory.

Çelik's dormitory had been shuttered as a result of an investigation into him regarding U.S.-based Islamist preacher Fethullah Gülen, considered the main suspect of the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016, Ağca had said in a series of tweets dated April 25. 

Çelik's company has assets of one million liras and produces flour to make crackers, Ağca reported.

Two days later, the journalist was called in by the prosecutor's office to give a statement about his reporting, he said in a tweet. 

"I have one piece of good news and one bad. The good news is the prosecutors heard me. The bad news is they want me to testify," Ağca said. 

Soylu's nephew Işık first came into the public eye when he was spotted in a photograph of the minister with Fatih Faruk Özer, the founder of the Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, who fled Turkey with $2 billion.

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