The chairman of Fenerbahce, one of Turkey's leading sports clubs, was summoned to testify today as part of an ongoing drug investigation involving prominent figures from the entertainment and media worlds, the Associated Press reported, BTA reported.
Sadettin Saran, who has dual Turkish and American citizenship, gave a statement in Istanbul after returning from abroad before being sent to a forensic facility for hair and blood samples, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
More than a dozen people have been detained since early December as part of an investigation led by the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office.
Television hosts, journalists, singers, actors and Social media influencers are among those detained on charges including drug production and trafficking and prostitution. Many of them have been subjected to blood and hair tests for drugs.
Denver-born Saran, who was elected Fenerbahce president in September, was questioned on suspicion of supplying and brokering the use of narcotics, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency, cited by the AP.
He returned to the Caglayan courthouse after giving medical tests and was later released on bail.
Istanbul-based Fenerbahce is one of the most popular and successful sports franchises in Turkey, the AP also wrote.
The club's former president Aziz Yildirim spent more than a year in prison in 2012 on match-fixing charges before being acquitted when a retrial found that the earlier case was influenced by corrupt judges, prosecutors and police.
The club has also been implicated in a separate investigation into match-fixing in Turkish football.