Ferah Oktan, a former teacher imprisoned on a terrorism conviction due to her alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, was diagnosed with cancer several months ago but remains in prison, prompting renewed calls from human rights advocates for her release, the TR724 News website reported.
Oktan, 37, was diagnosed with breast cancer in September while incarcerated at Edirne Prison in western Turkey. She is serving a sentence of more than seven years on conviction of “membership in a terrorist organization,” a charge based on allegations including her employment at a private school affiliated with the movement, depositing money in the now-shuttered Bank Asya and membership in a teachers’ union. She has been jailed since August 10, 2024.
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.
Human rights defender and Peoples’ Democracy and Equality Party (DEM Party) lawmaker Ömer Gergerlioğlu visited Oktan on Friday and criticized the authorities for refusing to release her despite her deteriorating health.
“The court could release her under house arrest, yet it refuses to do so,” Gergerlioğlu said after visiting Oktan in prison. “This country should not inflict such persecution.”
According to her husband, Medeni Oktan, also a teacher, delays in medical treatment have caused the cancer to metastasize. He said motions seeking her release were rejected by İstanbul 23rd and 24th High Criminal Courts, prompting the family to file an application with the Constitutional Court, where a ruling is pending.
Under Turkey’s Law on the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures, courts may suspend the sentence of a prisoner who, due to a serious illness or disability, cannot sustain life in prison conditions and who is not considered a serious or concrete danger to society. Rights groups say the provision is very rarely applied in practice.
Medeni Oktan was himself detained on April 5, 2016, and spent more than seven years in prison on similar charges before being released.
The couple has two children, aged 10 and 2.
According to the latest figures from the justice ministry, more than 126,000 people have been convicted for alleged links to the movement since 2016, with 11,085 still in prison. Legal proceedings are ongoing for over 24,000 individuals, while another 58,000 remain under active 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.
Turkey’s Human Rights Association (İHD) says more than 1,400 sick prisoners are currently held in Turkey, including hundreds in critical condition. The group has repeatedly reported delays in trips to the hospital, inadequate treatment in prison infirmaries and forensic assessments that allow seriously ill detainees to remain incarcerated.
