A Turkish court upheld a prison administration’s refusal to allow the children of jailed Islamic preacher and government critic Alparslan Kuytul to visit him in prison on weekends, six days after overturning the same refusal, his lawyer said.
Kuytul asked to move his prison visiting day from Thursday to the weekend so his children would not miss school, as prison rules permit weekend visits despite the usual weekday schedule. The Erzurum 1st High Criminal Court overturned the prison administration’s refusal on October 15, finding that Thursday visits interfered with the children’s education. Although the court declared its decision final, it upheld the prison administration’s refusal on October 21, following an objection by prosecutors, citing security and staffing concerns.
Kuytul, the founder of the Furkan movement, is being held pending trial in Erzurum province, about 845 kilometers from Adana, where four of his five children attend school.
His lawyer, Ömer Hakseven, said the 15-hour journey to Erzurum for weekday visits requires the children to miss two days of school each time.
Their mother, Semra Kuytul, is also jailed pending trial in Samsun province. The Furkan movement said visiting both parents once a month could cause the children to miss about 27 school days over the nine-month academic year.
Kuytul and his wife were among 35 people jailed on August 23 in an investigation into alleged organized crime, money laundering, fraud and forgery. The Furkan movement denies the allegations and says the investigation is politically motivated.
Kuytul submitted documents confirming his children’s school enrollment, but the prison’s Administration and Observation Board denied his request for weekend visits on September 29, citing security and staffing concerns.
The Erzurum 1st Enforcement Judge upheld the decision on October 5, prompting Hakseven to appeal to the high criminal court.
In its October 15 ruling, the court found that denying weekend visits violated the right to respect for family life and that prison officials had failed to substantiate their staffing concerns or explain how weekend visits would threaten security or disrupt prison operations. Hakseven said the enforcement judge issued a certificate confirming the decision was final on October 16.
In reversing its decision following the prosecutors’ October 19 objection, the court cited prison security, additional staffing requirements and concerns that similar requests from other prisoners could disrupt prison operations.
Hakseven questioned how the court could reverse a ruling that had already been declared final and accused authorities of interfering in the judicial process.
Under Article 271 of Turkey’s Code of Criminal Procedure, court decisions on objections are final, except for those ordering pretrial detention for the first time.
Kuytul, an Islamic scholar, founded the Furkan Education and Service Foundation in 1994. The group has frequently criticized the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and has faced repeated police interventions, administrative penalties and criminal investigations.
He was jailed in 2018 after criticizing Turkey’s military offensive in Afrin, northern Syria. He was acquitted of terrorism-related charges in 2020.
Kuytul was also arrested in 2022 in connection with the abduction of a businessman in Adana, facing charges of instigating unlawful deprivation of liberty, extortion, bodily harm and torture. He denied the charges and was released pending trial in June 2023.
