İzzet Odabaşoğlu, a former police officer imprisoned over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, died of a heart attack on Sunday at Sakarya Ferizli Prison, according to the TR724 news website.
Odabaşoğlu had been dismissed from his job by a government decree issued during a post-coup purge and was arrested but later released. He was rearrested on December 3, 2022 in the western province of Aydın and subsequently sentenced to seven years, six months in prison. Odabaşoğlu was scheduled to be released on Tuesday.
According to the law on execution of sentences, those convicted of terrorism-related offenses become eligible for conditional release only after serving three-quarters of their prison term. Time spent in custody before conviction and while awaiting appeal is credited toward the sentence.
Odabaşoğlu is survived by a wife and two children.
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 an abortive putsch 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.
