A cancer patient imprisoned over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement has gone five months without treatment, while delays in a medical assessment have held up the process required for the suspension of his sentence on grounds of health, the TR724 news website reported.
İbrahim Halil Al, who is being held in Edirne Prison, is awaiting an additional PET scan to assess his condition and determine whether the cancer has progressed.
His wife said the medical board process has been stalled because the hospital has yet to issue the report from a medical scan conducted as part of his assessment, preventing the completion of the medical board report needed for the suspension of his sentence on health grounds.
The case was brought to public attention by pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmaker and human rights advocate Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, who has frequently raised the cases of seriously ill prisoners in Turkey.
Al, who is serving a sentence of more than eight years, underwent surgery for soft-tissue cancer at Dicle University Hospital about a year and a half ago and subsequently had three PET scans to monitor his condition. His sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals after the second scan, and he was jailed on March 19, 2026.
Working primarily in the construction sector, Al was convicted of membership in a terrorist organization, reportedly based on his employment 17 years earlier at institutions in Osmaniye province that were later closed down 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 Gülen movement, a worldwide civic initiative inspired by the ideas of 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 attempted coup or any terrorist activity.
Al is imprisoned in Edirne in northwestern Turkey, while his wife and children live in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa. His wife, Bahar Al, said four requests to transfer him to a prison closer to his family had been rejected, forcing them to make a journey of about 27 hours to visit him.
His wife was also sentenced to more than six years in prison over alleged links to the movement. She spent a total of eight months behind bars before the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned her conviction. She was released on April 24 pending retrial, with a final hearing scheduled for October 15.
The couple have four children, who Bahar said have been deeply affected by their parents’ imprisonment. She said the children developed psychological problems during the periods of separation, with some receiving professional support.
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.
