ISTANBUL, Oct 11 (AFP) - A suspected Turkish mafia boss with purported links to top officials turned himself in to police on Monday two days after his unexpected release in the wake of a major police operation in which he and dozens of alleged henchmen were detained, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Sedat Peker, 34, who is accused of running a mafia gang, was detained when he showed up at the Istanbul courthouse along with his brother Atilla and a third suspect, the report said.
The three men were jailed on a fresh arrest warrant -- issued just 15 hours after their surprise relase early Saturday -- in the latest episode of a legal tangle that has sparked outrage in Turkey, where organized crime bosses are believed to have privileged personal and business ties with state officials.
Peker and 45 others, including some of his lawyers, were detained last week in a nationwide operation that culminated an investigation into charges of setting up a criminal organization.
After days of questioning, Peker and some of his men appeared in court Friday to be formally charged, but were freed when the court found the evidence presented was insufficient to lay charges, the liberal daily Milliyet said.
The decision dismayed police and surprised even Peker, whose gang is accused of corrupting police and army officials, senior bureaucrats and members of the judiciary.
"I did not expect such a ruling -- being released after all this hoopla is like a dream," Peker told reporters after he was freed.
The prosecutor immediately appealed to a higher court to reverse the decision and secured an arrest warrant against Peker and six others just 15 hours later, but by then Peker was nowhere to be found, newspapers reported.
A 50-strong police team conducted a series of raids in hopes of grabbing the alleged mafiosi, but to no avail, the daily Vatan said Monday.
A lawyer for Peker, Mehmet Dogurga, said Monday that his client had not run away or hidden from police, but had only taken the time to seek treatment for a back problem, Anatolia said.
In an interview with Vatan, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said the episode highlighted the difficulties the Turkish judiciary faces in taking action against suspects with friends in high places.
"Our prosecutors can only proceed to a certain degree in their investigations. Then there are always difficulties that arise from the titles of certain people," Cicek said. "As I said since the day I took office, there is no section (of society) that is not involved" in organized crime and corruption.
Turkey has long been shaken by reports of illegal ties between state officials and right-wing mafia members.
The catalyst was a 1996 road accident in which a fugitive organized crime boss and a senior police official were killed and a member of parliament was wounded when the car they were travelling in crashed near the town of Susurluk, in northwestern Turkey.
Another major underworld figure, Alaattin Cakici, was arrested on an Interpol bulletin in Austria earlier this month and is awaiting extradition to Turkey.
Cakici, an escape artist convicted on several charges of murder, was extradited from France in 1999 after 10 years on the run, but again fled prison and the country, apparently with an official passport, before his latest arrest.
Turkish newspapers quoted Cakici as saying he would not fight extradition proceedings.