A former physics teacher imprisoned over alleged links to the Gülen movement is being denied urgent medical treatment in a Turkish prison despite blood test results indicating severe anemia, the TR724 news website reported.
Asuman Birinci, held at a prison in Antalya in southern Turkey, underwent blood tests on January 13 after months of written requests for medical evaluation, according to her husband, Eyüp Birinci.
Her husband said the results showed a hemoglobin level of 6.8 grams per deciliter and a ferritin level of 1.8 nanograms per milliliter. Normal hemoglobin levels for adult women are typically around 12 grams per deciliter or higher. Ferritin measures iron stores in the body, and extremely low levels may indicate depleted reserves.
Despite the results, she was not taken to a hospital, given a blood transfusion or started on iron therapy, her husband said.
“She was told she could live with these values,” he said, alleging that a prison doctor dismissed her request for urgent care and refused to prescribe vitamin D or B12 supplements.
Eyüp Birinci said his wife had long suffered from advanced iron-deficiency anemia even before her imprisonment and required blood and serum supplementation roughly every six months. Since entering prison, he said, her condition has worsened significantly. He said she is unable to stand for long periods and struggles to meet basic daily needs.
Asuman Birinci is serving a six year, three month sentence over alleged ties to the Gülen movement and has been imprisoned for about 21 months. According to her husband, the charges stemmed from her employment at a Gülen-linked private tutoring center, enrolling her children in a Gülen-affiliated school and depositing money in the now-defunct Bank Asya, which authorities have also tied to the Gülen movement.
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 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.
Eyüp Birinci was himself taken into custody on July 24, 2016, during a wave of arrests following a coup attempt, over alleged links to the Gülen movement. He said he was subjected to sexual assault, beatings and insults while in custody at the Antalya Police Station.
During his detention Birinci reportedly fainted from the torture and was taken to a hospital on July 29 of the same year, where doctors discovered internal bleeding. According to his family, Birinci’s colon was ruptured from torture inflicted with a police baton. However, doctors did not issue a medical report documenting the alleged torture and instead attributed his injuries to a fall down a staircase.
A fellow detainee who shared a cell with Birinci for several days testified to witnessing his physical and psychological deterioration, saying that Birinci returned from one interrogation session in visibly worse condition.
