Adem Cirit, an 88-year-old inmate convicted of alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, died in a Turkish prison last Wednesday despite appeals for his release due to his worsening health, the Kronos news website reported.
Cirit was reportedly suffering from multiple health conditions connected to his old age, such as cognitive impairment, incontinence and impaired mobility due to joint weakness.
He was kept behind bars after a Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) report found him fit to remain in prison, issued in spite of two separate hospital reports that recommended postponing the remainder of his sentence. After his release was denied, Cirit sent a letter detailing his health issues to human rights defender and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmaker Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, seeking assistance for his worsening condition.
“I fell in my cell’s toilet and broke my wrist,” Cirit said in his letter. “I fell again [seven months later], this time breaking my hip and had to undergo surgery.”
Cirit was sentenced to more than six years in prison due to his involvement with the Gülen movement, such as providing scholarships to students, affiliation with Gülen-linked associations and depositing money in Bank Asya, a financial institution that was shut down by a government decree.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following an abortive putsch in 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
The ATK in recent years has drawn criticism for its questionable reports on sick prisoners, particularly in the cases of those incarcerated on politically motivated charges.
Human rights defenders such as forensic medicine expert Şebnem Korur Fincancı have accused the institution of lacking independence.
Every year human rights NGOs report the death of dozens of sick prisoners either behind bars or shortly after their belated release, which typically comes at an advanced stage of their illness.
Journalists and activists previously took to social media to campaign with the tag “Free Grandpa Adem.”
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
