Court blocks access to reports about selling of clothes donated to earthquake survivors

Photo: AA

Click to read the article in Turkish

A judgeship in Mersin has blocked access to 16 news reports about the selling of clothes donated to earthquake survivors to a textile recycling company.

Bahadır Özgür, a columnist for the daily BirGün first reported about the issue in an article published on February 28. The article was later quoted by several news outlets.

Accordingly, some of the clothes sent to the earthquake region by companies and individuals were later sent to AJ International because "they were surplus."

The report came after a video showing that parcels containing clothes were being unloaded from trucks in a warehouse in Mersin Port began circulating on social media last month. The person who filmed the video was seen saying the clothes were intended for earthquake survivors.

Company confirms allegations

The company later confirmed the allegations, saying that municipalities and other organizations received too many clothes, and handed over some of them to the company as they had neither personnel nor space to handle them.

According to the BirGün article, the company collects not only earthquake aid but also clothes in old cloth containers placed on streets, according to contracts it made with municipalities. The company does not deliver those clothes to those in need in Turkey but exports them to other countries.

AJ International was founded in 2018 by Ali Al-Sharifi, a citizen of Yemen, in the Akçaabat district of Trabzon, northeastern Turkey. In the same year, the company moved its headquarters to Beylikdüzü, İstanbul.

Al-Sharifi later obtained citizenship of Turkey and changed his name to Abdülhalil Şerifi, Özgür noted in the article.

After an application by the company, the Mersin 3rd Penal Judgeship of Peace on March 6 blocked access to the relevant articles.

In reaction to the order, Özgür tweeted, "They want everything to remain secret. Would hearing that the clothes you sent to earthquake survivors ... were sold to a Yemen-based company in partnership with Saudi capital?"

On February 6, two earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.7 and 7.6 struck the southern city of Maraş, killing over 46,000 people. (TY/VK)