A charity owner in Turkey who allegedly demanded sex from vulnerable refugee women in exchange for aid has been arrested following a BBC investigation that exposed the abuse.
Sadettin Karagoz, who runs a charity organization in Turkey’s capital Ankara, is accused of sexually exploiting women who came to him desperate for help. He denies all the allegations.
Karagoz established his charity in 2014, which provides donations such as nappies, pasta, milk and clothes to refugees. Syrian refugees who fled war in their country said he initially appeared helpful.
A woman named Madina, whose real name was changed to protect her identity, fled Syria in 2016. Two years later, when her child became seriously ill and her husband left her, she went to Karagoz’s organization called the Hope Charity Store for help.
“He told me: ‘When you have nowhere to go, come to me and I will look after you,'” Madina said.
However, when she returned to the charity, Madina says Karagoz’s behavior changed dramatically.
She described how he asked her to go with him to an area behind a curtain in the office to collect supplies.
“He grabbed me,” she said. “He started kissing me. I told him to get away from me. If I hadn’t yelled, he would have tried to rape me.”
Madina explained that she managed to escape from the building, but Karagoz later came to her home.
“I didn’t open the door because I was terrified,” she said, adding that he threatened to have her deported back to Syria.
Because she was afraid of what might happen, Madina said she never reported the incident to police and did not tell anyone else.
Karagoz, a retired bank worker, denies the allegations. He told the BBC that his organization has helped more than 37,000 people over the years.
He claimed that the aid distribution area in the charity is small, crowded and monitored by CCTV, making it impossible for him to be alone with any woman.
His charity has received recognition over the years, winning a local newspaper award in 2020 and being featured on national television. He said it has attracted support from national and international organizations. In March this year, he changed the charity’s name to My Home-meal Association.
Three women, including Madina, told the BBC that Karagoz had sexually assaulted and harassed them.
Seven other people, including two former workers at his charity, said they either witnessed or heard direct testimony of him committing sexual abuse between 2016 and 2024.
Another refugee, 27-year-old Nada, whose name was also changed for protection, said Karagoz told her he would only give her aid if she went to an empty flat with him.
“If you don’t, I won’t give you anything,” Nada said Karagoz told her.
She was with her sister-in-law and they left immediately. But because her family desperately needed help and she didn’t know where else to go, she went back.
On one occasion, Nada said Karagoz took her behind a curtain to get nappies for her son where “he tried to touch my breasts.”
Another time, she said that “he came from behind and grabbed my hand. He forced me to touch his genitals.”
Nada said she was afraid of the stigma attached to sexual abuse and worried she would be blamed, so she didn’t tell anyone, not even her husband.
A third woman named Batoul, who has since moved to Germany, also told the BBC that Karagoz had assaulted her.
As a single mother, she said she went to him for help. “When I turned away to pick up the aid, he put his hands on my backside,” she explained. “I left the aid and walked out of the shop.”
The allegations against Karagoz were not the first. In 2019 and 2025, he was accused of sexual harassment and assault, but prosecutors decided both times there was not enough evidence to charge him.
Police said neither victims nor witnesses were willing to come forward to make formal complaints.
Some women confessed they were afraid testifying could lead to harassment or deportation.
However, after the investigation was published, two other women came forward to report Karagoz. Their testimony resulted in him being charged with sexual abuse. He is now in jail awaiting trial.
Batoul said she is “truly happy” he has been arrested, “for myself and for all the women who have suffered in silence and couldn’t speak out because of fear.”
She added that she hopes it “gives courage and strength to all women who are being exploited in any way.”
Before his arrest, the allegations from Madina, Nada, Batoul, and charity workers were presented to Karagoz.
He denied all the accusations and claimed that if they were true, more women would have come forward.
“Three people, five people, 10 people could complain. Such things occur,” he said. “If you said 100, 200 had accused me, then fine, then you could believe I actually did those things.”
Karagoz also said he had diabetes and high blood pressure and showed reporters a medical report with details of an operation in 2016 to remove his left testicle. He claimed this meant he was not able to perform any sexual activity.
However, a professor of urology and specialist in men’s sexual health, Ates Kadioglu, told the attested that having one testicle removed “doesn’t affect someone’s sex life.”
