Merve Zayım, a 37-year-old religious education teacher who gave birth to a baby boy two days ago in Turkey’s western Edirne province, has been sent back to Edirne L-Type Prison, the TR724 news website reported.
Zayım was detained on July 2 while attempting to flee Turkey to avoid prison time after being sentenced to more than six years on terrorism charges due to her alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement. The conviction was based on her employment at a now-closed Gülen-affiliated school, alleged use of the encrypted ByLock messaging app and witness statements. Her appeal has been pending before the Supreme Court of Appeals for more than three years.
Since July the Eskişehir 2nd High Criminal Court has repeatedly rejected Zayım’s appeals for release on the grounds of her pregnancy.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations revealed in 2013 implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan and 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.
Under Turkish law, women who are pregnant or have given birth within the past 18 months cannot be incarcerated. According to Article 16(4) of the Law on the Execution of Sentences, the execution of a sentence must be postponed for the duration of the pregnancy and until the child is 18 months old.
However, these protections apply only after a sentence has become final. In practice, courts have ordered the pretrial detention of pregnant women while their cases are still under appeal, arguing that the postponement rule does not extend to pretrial custody.
Critics say this interpretation undermines both the spirit of the law and international standards such as the United Nations’ “Bangkok Rules,” which call for non-custodial measures for pregnant women and mothers with young children.
The case has drawn strong condemnation from rights groups, which have long criticized Turkey’s practice of imprisoning pregnant women and mothers with newborns.
Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a human rights advocate and member of parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), denounced the move on X. “They made Merve Zayım, who could have been placed under house arrest, give birth while in pretrial detention, and today they sent her back to Edirne Prison while she is still in the postpartum period,” he wrote, calling on the EU’s Turkey rapporteur, Nacho Sanchez Amor, to include this incident in his upcoming report.
