Bekir Bayram, a 76-year-old former inmate jailed over alleged links to the Gülen movement who had become bedridden in prison, died of a heart attack on Friday, the TR724 news website reported.
Bayram had been released on parole on November 9, 2023, after developing severe heart problems in prison and became bedridden following an angiography. Despite his condition, a hospital initially issued a report saying he could remain in prison.
He had been sentenced to more than nine years on conviction of alleged links to the Gülen movement.
Turkish 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 failed coup 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 latest figures from the Justice Ministry, more than 126,000 people have been convicted for alleged links to the Gülen movement since 2016, with 11,085 still in prison. Legal proceedings are ongoing for over 24,000 individuals, while another 58,000 remain under investigation nearly a decade later.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
