Turkey’s Supreme Court member Mustafa Erdoğan, who was detained at a hospital room, lost his life on Tuesday morning after being released in critical care, Samanyolu Haber reported.
The medical reports showing the criticality of his situation were ignored and the appeals for his release were rejected. His daughter Buket Erdoğan had earlier said: “My father is fighting for his life in a cell. He is getting infected in the prison.”
Erdoğan was put to sleep nine days ago since he lost his consciousness and was released later on.
The reason for Erdoğan’s arrest is not known since no indictment was written.
Erdoğan is only one of thousands of judges and prosecutors who were imprisoned without any evidence following a controversial coup attempt last summer.
The Turkish government has arrested a total of 2,431 judges and prosecutors and dismissed 4,424 others since a botched coup attempt on July 15, 2016, a recent Constitutional Court general assembly ruling revealed.
In December, the European Networks of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) suspended the observer status of Turkey’s Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) and excluded it from participation in ENCJ activities for the mass suspension and dismissal of judges and prosecutors and the failure to comply with the European Standards for Councils for the Judiciary.
On June 8, Nils Muižnieks, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, expressed concern about the new composition of HSYK based on amendments which was approved in April 16 referendum, saying it does not offer adequate safeguards for the independence of the judiciary.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch AKP government along with Turkey’s autocratic President Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup. Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15. (SCF with turkishminute.com)
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