Turkish authorities have denied a request to suspend the prison sentence of an ailing 89-year-old inmate convicted of alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement despite his advanced age and multiple health problems, the TR724 news website reported.
Authorities instead proposed transferring Erol Şengök to specialized facilities in İstanbul or İzmir that house inmates unable to care for themselves due to health conditions. Şengök declined the option because his elderly wife would be unable to travel such long distances to visit him.
Şengök, a jeweler from central Kırşehir province, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on charges of membership in the Gülen movement, with the conviction based on his charitable activities. He was taken into custody on June 11, 2025, after his sentence was upheld on appeal and sent to Sincan T-Type Prison in Ankara.
Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a lawmaker from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and a human rights defender, described Şengök’s situation as inhumane after visiting him in prison.
Gergerlioğlu said Sincan Prison systematically obstructs inmates’ chances of sentence suspension and parole by issuing disciplinary penalties on minor pretexts. “They are looking for ways to pressure people,” he said. “When the rule of law is restored in this country, no official will be able to justify this. They are committing crimes.”
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.
Gergerlioğlu said he had raised the case with Nacho Sánchez Amor, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, and pledged to continue drawing international attention to the matter.
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.
