Turkey’s Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) has ruled that a cancer patient convicted over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement is fit to remain in prison, despite signs that his cancer has progressed after months of delays in his treatment and medical assessment, the TR724 news website reported.
İbrahim Halil Al has soft tissue cancer and underwent surgery about a year and a half ago. Following his imprisonment in March, he received no treatment for about five months while awaiting a CT scan that ultimately showed signs of progression. A PET scan was subsequently recommended to further assess his condition.
The ATK, which assesses whether seriously ill prisoners are medically fit to remain incarcerated, concluded that Al could remain in prison because he was able to manage his daily needs independently.
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.
Al is serving a prison sentence of more than eight years on a conviction of membership in a terrorist organization. His conviction was based on his employment 17 years earlier at institutions in Osmaniye province that were later closed over their alleged affiliation with the Gülen movement as well as his participation in religious gatherings and the collection of donations.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted the faith-based Gülen movement, inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who died in 2024, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated Erdoğan as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the probes as a Gülenist conspiracy and designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after a 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.
Al is being held in the northwestern province of Edirne, more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from his family in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa. His wife, Bahar Al, said five transfer requests had been rejected and that the 27-hour journeys to visit him have placed a heavy financial and psychological burden on the family.
Al and his wife were both jailed on March 19 over alleged links to the Gülen movement. Bahar Al, who was sentenced to more than six years in prison, was released on April 24 after the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned her conviction. She had spent a total of eight months behind bars. A hearing in her retrial is scheduled for October 15.
She said the accusations against her included attending charity bazaars and parent meetings at schools linked to the movement.
Following the coup attempt of July 15, 2016, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency that remained in effect until July 19, 2018. During this period, the government carried out a purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight by issuing a number of government decrees. More than 113,000 civil servants and 4,362 judges and prosecutors were dismissed over alleged links to terrorist organizations, while more than 26,000 members of the armed forces were expelled from the military for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
According to the latest figures from the justice ministry, more than 127,000 people have been convicted of alleged links to the movement since 2016, with 10,485 still in prison and legal proceedings ongoing against 83,404 individuals.
