Muhammed Macit, a second lieutenant in the Turkish military who was convicted on coup charges, was not allowed to attend his wife’s funeral after the public prosecutor denied his request.
His wife, Gamze Macit (27), died as a result of a July 31 traffic accident in Ankara.
Macit was a trainee at the time of a coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order in what is known as the “Armored Units Training Center case.” Macit and his colleagues merely followed the orders of their commanders on the night of the attempted coup, which is considered by many to have been a false flag operation, and were not involved in any criminal activity.
The abortive putsch killed 251 people and wounded more than a thousand others. The next morning, after announcing that the coup had been foiled, the Turkish government immediately started a huge purge of military officers, judges, police officers, teachers and other government officials, which ultimately led to the summary dismissal of over 150,000 public servants from their jobs.
According to human rights defender and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, Muhammed and Gamze Macit were married for only a week when Muhammed was arrested. Gamze Macit’s last wish was for her husband to lead her funeral prayer. But after a public prosecutor refused his request to attend his wife’s funeral, Muhammed Macit had to perform a funeral prayer in prison together with his cellmates.
