Mehmet Çataklı, a 51-year-old inmate jailed over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, died of a heart attack on Saturday in İstanbul’s Marmara Prison the TR724 news website reported.
Çataklı was arrested in June on charges of membership in a terrorist organization based on allegations that included allowing his daughter to stay in a student house, sending her money and paying her rent. His daughter had previously been detained in a case known as the “Girls’ Trial,” in which 41 defendants including 19 teenage girls were prosecuted for alleged Gülen movement links based on routine religious and educational activities.
His indictment also cited activities that Turkish courts consider indicative of Gülen movement affiliation, including working at companies affiliated with the movement, depositing money in the now-shuttered Bank Asya and using ByLock, an encrypted messaging application once widely available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play that Turkish authorities claim served as a secret communication tool for Gülen supporters.
Çataklı had previously served more than four years in prison on similar charges related to alleged Gülen movement activities.
The İstanbul 23rd High Criminal Court had scheduled the first hearing in Çataklı’s trial for January 8, 2026. While in prison Çataklı lost his mother and subsequently began experiencing heart problems.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the movement since corruption investigations revealed in 2013 implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan as well as some of his family members 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.
According to the latest figures from the Justice Ministry, more than 126,000 people have been convicted for alleged links to the Gülen movement since 2016, with 11,085 still in prison. Legal proceedings are ongoing for over 24,000 individuals, while another 58,000 remain under investigation nearly a decade later.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
In the Girls’ Trial, 19 defendants were convicted in September on charges of membership in a terrorist organization for routine religious and educational activities, as part of a broader crackdown on people accused of ties to the Gülen movement.
