Human rights group Mazlum-Der has urged Turkey’s Justice Ministry to suspend the sentence of 74-year-old inmate Abdullah Tırpan, who is serving time in prison due to conviction of alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement despite suffering from multiple chronic and acute conditions.
In a petition sent to the ministry, the group criticized official medical reports that described Tırpan as dependent on other inmates for basic care while also concluding that he was fit to remain in prison, calling the assessment a “contradiction that defies reason and conscience.”
Mazlum-Der warned that keeping Tırpan in prison despite his worsening health could pose a serious threat to his life and asked the ministry to suspend his sentence.
The court convicted Tırpan on charges based on his deposits at Bank Asya, his subscriptions to movement-affiliated magazines and newspapers, sending his children to schools later closed for alleged Gülen links, making donations to related charities and membership in a foundation associated with the movement.
Tırpan suffers from diabetes, hypertension, neuropathy and vision problems. Despite his health problems, a request for the suspension of his sentence was rejected after Turkey’s Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) ruled on December 17, 2025, that he was fit to remain in prison.
In its petition Mazlum-Der cited medical reports, including one by the ATK, that found significant damage to Tırpan’s nervous system, eyes and muscles, and said he was hospitalized in February after losing consciousness and that an MRI recommended for his treatment has still not been carried out.
The group asked the Justice Ministry to suspend Tırpan’s sentence and to clarify whether he was receiving adequate care and a diet suitable for his medical condition in prison.
His relatives and rights advocates have been campaigning for his release, saying his deteriorating condition poses an imminent risk to his life.
Tırpan was first detained on August 16, 2016, during a crackdown that followed a failed coup a month earlier, and spent some 19 months in pretrial detention. He was later sentenced to seven-and-a-half- years in prison by the Tekirdağ 3rd High Criminal Court and subsequently appealed the ruling. After Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the sentence, Tırpan was re-arrested on February 25, 2025.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, who died in 2024, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the probes as a Gülenist conspiracy and later designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after the coup attempt in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of orchestrating. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
According to the law on the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures, 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 or concrete danger to society, may be suspended until they recover. However, the stipulated suspension of sentence is often not implemented.
The Human Rights Association (İHD) says more than 1,400 sick prisoners are currently held in Turkey, including hundreds in critical condition. Complaints include delays in taking inmates to hospitals, inadequate treatment in prison infirmaries and forensic reports that allow seriously ill detainees to remain incarcerated.
