A panel of Turkish medical experts has declared for the second time that a military officer imprisoned for nearly a decade is too ill to stay in custody, yet Maj. Mehmet Gürler, who has advanced multiple sclerosis and relies on a wheelchair, remains in a prison in Istanbul.
According to the TR724 news website, the panel was convened by Turkey’s Council of Forensic Medicine, a state body under the Justice Ministry whose medical opinions carry legal authority in Turkish courts and are routinely used by judges to determine whether prisoners are fit to serve their sentences.
In a February 9 report the panel found that Gürler can no longer perform basic daily tasks on his own and that prison conditions are incompatible with his level of disability. An examination on January 30 recorded that he could only rise to his feet with another person’s assistance and faced a significant risk of falls. He also required help eating.
The council had reached the same conclusion in September 2024, finding permanent disability and chronic illness.
According to Law No. 5275, the sentence of a prisoner who, due to a serious illness or disability, is unable to manage life on their own under prison conditions and who is not considered a serious or concrete danger to society, may be suspended until they recover. However, the stipulated suspension of sentence is often not implemented.
Gürler, 48, was arrested following a coup attempt in July 2016.
Turkey experienced the controversial military coup attempt on the night of July 15, 2016, which, according to many, was a false flag operation aimed at entrenching the authoritarian rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by rooting out dissidents and eliminating powerful actors such as the military in his desire for absolute power.
The abortive putsch killed 251 people and wounded more than a thousand others.
Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency (OHAL) 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, known as KHKs. Over 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, as well as more than 24,000 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
Gürler was convicted of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
At trial, he denied any foreknowledge of the coup. At 11 p.m. on the night of the putsch, he told the court he was in shorts and a T-shirt some distance from the academy barracks, having individual conversations with officer candidates considering dropping out of the program. Around 1 a.m., he said, he ordered students onto buses believing he was moving them to safety, then reversed the order and prohibited anyone from leaving the base perimeter.
His health began declining in 2022, when he started experiencing double vision, involuntary eye movement and loss of balance. Neurological tests and MRI scans confirmed a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, and his condition has worsened progressively since, to the point where he requires full-time assistance and can move only by wheelchair.
