A Turkish homemaker has been jailed in central Turkey to serve more than seven years over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement based on ordinary activities such as donating to charities and attending fundraisers for students.
According to the TR724 news website, the woman, identified only by the initials M.Ş., was sent to prison on August 20 in the central province of Kırıkkale.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations revealed in 2013 implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan as well as some of his family members and inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and a conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan began to target the movement’s members. He designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016 and intensified the crackdown on it following an abortive putsch in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Advocates say the Kırıkkale case highlights how ordinary people remain caught up in sweeping prosecutions nearly a decade after the coup attempt.
