The relatives and friends of a Turkish woman with stage-three breast cancer are urging authorities to release her from prison, where she is serving a sentence for conviction of alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, the Bold news website reported.
Ayşe Solak, 49, began serving a six-year, eight-month sentence on August 18 at Aydın Prison after Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld her conviction. Diagnosed in 2021, Solak underwent surgery and continues chemotherapy, daily medications and monthly injections. Her doctors require her to undergo medical checkups every six months.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family 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 the 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.
Her attorney has applied to postpone her sentence on grounds of health, and her latest test results have been submitted to the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK). However, the ATK frequently comes under criticism over its questionable reports that find ailing inmates fit to remain in prison. Rights advocates slam the agency over its lack of independence from political influence and its role in compounding the persecution of political prisoners.
According to Law No. 5275, the sentence of a prisoner who due to a serious illness or disability is unable to manage life on their own under prison conditions and who is not considered a serious danger to society may be suspended until they recover. However, the stipulated suspension of sentence is often not implemented.
Relatives and friends say Solak’s health is at risk if she remains behind bars.
“The ATK must give a fair and conscientious ruling,” said her friend Füsun Karademir. She cited the recent death of another inmate, İbrahim Güngör, who suffered multiple chronic illnesses but was denied release despite deteriorating health. “How many more sick prisoners must die?” she asked.
Güngör,72, died behind bars on September 7. His family had repeatedly appealed for his release on health grounds, but their pleas were ignored. Güngör suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and prostate problems and had been hospitalized several times in the weeks before his death.
Court documents show Solak’s conviction was based on her use of the ByLock messaging app and bank records.
Turkish authorities have considered ByLock, once available in Apple’s App Store and Google Play, to be a secret tool of communication among supporters of the Gülen movement since a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, despite a lack of evidence that ByLock messages were related to the abortive putsch.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled multiple times that that the use of the ByLock messaging app does not constitute a criminal offense. Turkish authorities, however, have continued to detain and prosecute people for using the application.
