Muharrem Gelen, a healthcare worker removed from public service and incarcerated in Ankara as part of Turkey’s widespread purges after a failed military coup in July 2016, has been denied parole despite his eligibility and his celiac disease, the Bold Medya news website reported on Wednesday.
Celiac disease is an illness caused by an immune reaction to eating gluten.
Gelen has been constantly losing weight due to his inability to get nutrients that are appropriate for his condition and has dropped from 75 kilograms (165 pounds) to 35 kilograms (77 pounds) in prison, according to the report.
He became eligible for parole in June 2023, with a monitoring report documenting his good behavior in the six months leading up to that date.
However, the Sincan Prison parole board denied him release. He then appealed the decision in court and was rejected a second time.
The board is scheduled to review his case again on April 9.
Held behind bars for more than seven years, Gelen was imprisoned due to his alleged links to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group accused by the Turkish government of “terrorist activities.”
The parole board in its decision said he was denied release because he “did not share information on the organization,” referring to the Gülen movement he was accused of being affiliated with.
In recent years, prison boards across Turkey have denied parole to many eligible inmates, particularly those jailed on Gülen links or pro-Kurdish activism, citing arbitrary reasons such as a lack of remorse.
Rights groups have accused these boards of acting like courtrooms and exacerbating the persecution of political prisoners.
Opposition MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu said prisoners who do not even have a disciplinary sanction on their records are being denied parole on such unsubstantiated grounds while people convicted of premeditated murder are released the moment they become eligible for parole.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the 2013 corruption investigations, 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 following the abortive putsch in 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
