Fahrettin İşgüder, a 73-year-old businessman who was sentenced to over six years in prison for alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, died on Monday in western Turkey, the Kronos news website reported.
İşgüder had been hospitalized over the weekend after collapsing due to the heat and overcrowding in prison, according to the report.
İşgüder was arrested two-and-a-half months ago. He was accused of attending religious sermons organized by the movement and going on pilgrimage with alleged members who were dismissed from their jobs by government decrees during the purges following a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement after the abortive putsch, which he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
The overcrowding crisis in prisons has been a growing issue since 2005, with prison populations swelling annually. As of April 1, 2024 the number of detainees and convicts stood at 322,780, significantly exceeding the capacity of 295,702 across 403 penal institutions. This includes 45,717 detainees and 277,063 convicts, with 13,561 women and 2,912 children among them. The report stresses that despite a release recently legislated early release by parliament that temporarily reduced numbers, the prison population rebounded sharply, increasing by 71,679 in just seven months.
According to Council of Europe reports, Turkey has the highest prison population in Europe. The findings of a report by the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey (TİHEK) align with these statistics, underscoring the chronic overcrowding in Turkish prisons.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2022 allocated 8.7 billion lira for the construction of 36 new prisons in the next four years. The number of Turkish penal institutions will increase to 419 this year with the opening of 20 new prisons. There were 403 prisons in the country as of June 2024.
Despite the plans to construct new prisons, the Turkish government is accused by rights groups of ignoring the unfavorable conditions in the existing prisons such as problems with heating, air quality, water supply, access to healthcare and nutrition.
