Charity boss arrest in BBC sex-for-aid investigation ‘gives women strength’

The owner of a Turkish charity implicated in sexual assault allegations, which were uncovered by a BBC investigation, has been arrested.

BBC News Turkey has revealed accusations that Saadettin Karagöz sexually exploited vulnerable women, promising them help in exchange for sex. He denies all accusations.

Karagöz set up his charity in the Turkish capital, Ankara, in 2014. Syrian refugees in desperate need of help said he initially seemed like an “angel.”

One of them, Medina, fled the Syrian civil war in 2016, and said that two years later, one of her children became seriously ill and her husband abandoned her. Her name has been changed to protect her identity.

Left to take care of three children on her own, she went to the Saadettin Karakoz organization, which translates to Hope Charity Shop. It collects donations for refugees such as diapers, pasta, milk and clothes.

“He told me: ‘When you have nowhere to go, come to me and I will take care of you,'” she says.

But when she did, Medina said he changed. She describes how Mr. Karagoz asked her to go with him to an area of ​​the office behind a screen to get some supplies.

“He caught me,” she says. “He started kissing me… I asked him to get away from me. If I had not screamed, he would have tried to rape me.”

Medina describes how she fled the building but Mr Karagoz later went to her house.

“I did not open the door because I was afraid,” she says, explaining that he threatened to send her back to Syria.

Fearing repercussions, Medina says she never went to the police or told anyone else what happened.

Karagoz, a retired bank employee, denies these accusations, telling the BBC that his organization has helped more than 37,000 people.

He says the charity’s aid distribution area is small, crowded, and monitored by surveillance cameras, so he cannot be alone with any woman.

Over the years, his charity has gained widespread recognition and won a local newspaper award in 2020. It has been featured on national television, and he says it has attracted support from national and international organisations. In March of this year, it changed its Turkish name to My Home-meal Association.

In all, three women, including Medina, told the BBC that Karagöz sexually assaulted and harassed them.

Seven other people, including two former employees of his organization, say they witnessed or heard direct testimony that he committed acts of sexual assault between 2016 and 2024.

According to 27-year-old Syrian refugee Nada, he said he would only help her if she went with him to an empty apartment. She says Mr. Karagoz told her: “If you don’t do this, I won’t give you anything.” Again, her name has been changed to protect her identity.

She was with her sister-in-law and says they went out. But she was desperate to support her family, and she explained that she didn’t know where to turn, so she returned.

On one occasion, Nada says, Mr. Karakoz took her behind a screen to get diapers for her son as he “tried to touch my breasts.”

Another time, she says, “He came from behind and grabbed my hand…and forced me to touch his genitals.”

Fearing the stigma associated with sexual assault and fearing she would be blamed, Nada says she didn’t feel like she could tell anyone, even her husband.

The third woman who told the BBC that Karagöz assaulted her was Batoul, who has since moved to Germany.

The single mother also says she went to him for help. “When I turned away to get the aid, he put his hands on my buttocks,” she explains. “I left the aid and left the store.”

These testimonies were not the first to appear against Mr. Karagöz.

In 2019 and 2025, he was accused of sexual harassment and assault, but prosecutors decided on both occasions that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him. Police said neither victims nor witnesses were willing to come forward to file formal complaints.

Some women told us they feared that testifying would lead to harassment or deportation.

But following a BBC investigation, it is understood that two more women came forward to report Karagöz, and their testimony led to him being accused of sexual assault. He is now in prison awaiting trial.

Batoul says she is “really happy” that she was arrested, “for me and for all the women who suffered in silence and could not speak out because of fear.”

She adds that she hopes it “gives courage and strength to all women who are being exploited in any way.”

Before he was arrested, we raised the allegations made by the city of Nada, Batoul and the charity workers to Mr. Karagöz.

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]. “Things like this happen. If you say 100, 200,” he said [had accused me]Well, you can believe I actually did those things.”

He also said that he suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure and showed us a medical report detailing the operation performed in 2016 to remove his left testicle. He added that this meant he was not able to engage in any sexual activity.

But professor of urology and specialist in men’s sexual health, Ates Kadioglu, told the BBC that removing one testicle “does not affect anyone’s sex life.”

We brought this up to Mr Karagoz who insisted that sexual activity was “not possible for me”.

We also explained to him that sexual assault may be motivated by a desire for power and control. He replied, “I personally have no such desire.”

“Everything we did was a good deed and this is what we get in return.”

Saadeddin Karagöz said that women who accused him of assault in the past did so because he reported them to the police for involvement in illegal activities.

All of the women we spoke to denied that they or their relatives were involved in the crime, and the BBC saw no evidence to suggest they were involved.