Turkish military police said on Thursday that they had stormed an Istanbul villa to rescue nine captive women whose scantily clad images were posted online after they were recruited for a TV reality show.
Pictures of the women posing in bathing suits and exercising were distributed on a Turkish-language Web site that allowed users to vote for their favorite woman and see more images by charging money through their mobile phones.
The women soon realized they had been duped, and asked to leave the villa, local media said.
The women were rescued on Monday in the villa in Riva, a resort near Istanbul, a military police spokesman said.
Hilmi Tufan Cakir, a lawyer representing the show’s organizers, said the show was legitimate.
“They knew that this competition would be aired on the Internet live,” he said.
The women were made to sign a contract that said they could have no contact with their families and would have to pay a 50,000 Turkish Lira (US$33,000) fine if they left the show within two months, Dogan news agency reported.
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