Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals has overturned the prison sentence of a pregnant woman jailed over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, citing the trial court’s failure to justify a sentence above the statutory minimum, the TR724 news website reported.
The appeals court said the Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court failed to adequately explain why it imposed a sentence above the legal minimum, concluding that the ruling violated the principle of proportionality. The decision paves the way for a retrial.
Leyla Arslan was convicted in November 2020 of “membership in a terrorist organization” and sentenced to more than eight years in prison. She appealed the verdict and was not incarcerated while the case was pending. However, her appeal was rejected by the Diyarbakır Regional Court of Justice in January 2022, after which she filed a further appeal with the Supreme Court of Appeals. She remained at liberty during the appellate process.
While her case was under review, Arslan attempted to cross into Greece to seek asylum but was arrested on August 4, 2025, in northwestern Edirne province. Arslan, who is seven months pregnant, has since been held at Edirne L-Type Prison.
She had previously worked at a student dormitory at the Gülen movement-affiliated Selahattin Eyyubi University, an institution shut down by government decree after a 2016 coup attempt.
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.
According to the Law on the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures, the enforcement of prison sentences for women who are pregnant or within six months after giving birth is postponed. If the baby dies or is placed in the care of someone other than the mother, the sentence is deferred until two months after birth. This provision is intended to protect the mother’s health during pregnancy and after delivery as well as the development of the baby.
Arslan’s husband, Fikret Arslan, said she suffers from high blood pressure and experienced preeclampsia during her first pregnancy, putting her current pregnancy in the high-risk category. He added that she was taken to the hospital last month after her blood pressure spiked while in prison.
