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Criminal case filed against embattled Turkish media mogul

Türkiye Materials 25 December 2009 15:26 (UTC +04:00)
A prosecutor has filed a case against Aydin Dogan, Turkey's largest media owner, accusing him breaking the country's capital markets law, the Turkish press reported Friday.
Criminal case filed against embattled Turkish media mogul

A prosecutor has filed a case against Aydin Dogan, Turkey's largest media owner, accusing him breaking the country's capital markets law, the Turkish press reported Friday, DPA reported.

A lawyer for the company, Dogan Yayin, has confirmed that an Istanbul prosecutor has filed the case, which must first be accepted by a judge before it can proceed, according to reports.

The case is the latest in a string of legal problems facing Dogan.

Turkey's tax authority in September hit the company with a 2.5-billion-dollar fine, accusing it of hiding income generated through the sales of stock between businesses within the group.

This fine comes on top of a 500-million-dollar fine issued in February over what authorities claim were irregularities in the sale of parts of the group to the German media group Axel Springer.

Axel Springer announced in November it would buy a 29 per cent stake in Dogan Yayin, pending the resolution of the tax case.

Dogan publishes several powerful newspapers and owns CNN-Turk, the Turkish-language version of CNN, among other channels. Its media properties have been among the most vocal critics of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The company has accused the government of targeting it because of its criticism. But Turkish officials have insisted the tax cases against Dogan have been free of any political interference.

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