Turkish journalist Musab Turan was fired after asking the interior minister award questions about his alleged connections to organized crime.

During a government press event, the journalist who worked for Turkey’s state news agency Anadolu asked Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu about serious allegations made by an underworld mobster.

Sedat Peker, a mafia boss exiled abroad, post a number of online videos in which he accuses members of the government and the ruling AKP party of corruption and various crimes.

In one video, Peker notably accuses Soylu of offering him protection and tipping him off about an impending investigation against him last year, allowing him to flee Turkey before being arrested.

The minister, one of the most powerful figures in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, has been under pressure from the opposition to resign but has rejected Peker’s allegations.

Anadolu reporter Musab Turan asked Industry Minister Mustafa Varank and Agriculture Minister Bekir Pakdemirli to respond to the allegations at a press conference on Friday.

A video of the press conference went viral on social media.

Anadolu swiftly issued a statement announcing that Turan had been fired, accusing him of lacking “journalistic principles” and propagating “political propaganda”.

“We have requested that the prosecutor carry out an investigation to verify whether (Turan) is a member of a terrorist group or not,” Anadolu said.

Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish presidency’s director of communications, wrote on Twitter: “Those who seek to harm the respectability of our state will pay the price.”