Turkish prison authorities have refused to take a seriously ill inmate for an evaluation by the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK), which could authorize her release on health grounds, despite a diagnosis of advanced cancer and warnings from hospital doctors, TR724 reported.
Gülten Nene, a former public servant, was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer while incarcerated in a women’s prison in southern Mersin province.
A medical board at Mersin State Hospital concluded that she could not receive adequate treatment in prison and recommended delaying her sentence.
However, under Turkish law, only the ATK, a state-run body under the Ministry of Justice, can issue the medical report required to postpone or suspend an inmate’s sentence.
According to her husband, Murat Nene, the authorities have ignored repeated appeals and have yet to send her for this legally mandated evaluation.
“She should have started chemotherapy in March; it only began on Monday,” he said. “She’s being left untreated in prison, even though doctors warned her condition was serious.”
He added that the ATK had requested her chemotherapy schedule but said the prison failed to respond.
“She’s in stage 3. The tumor requires urgent surgery,” he said.
Gülten Nene previously described her delayed diagnosis in a letter to Peoples Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmaker Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, saying that medical care in prison was inadequate.
A prison doctor first discovered a suspicious mass shortly after her April 2024 detention, but multiple hospital appointments were canceled due to a reported lack of security personnel to accompany her. She was formally diagnosed nearly a year later, in March 2025.
Nene was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison over alleged links to the Gülen movement. Her conviction was based on activities such as depositing money in Gülen-linked Bank Asya, subscribing to certain newspapers linked to the movement and attending religious gatherings, actions the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled do not constitute a crime.
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 as well as members of his family and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began pursuing its followers. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following an abortive putsch in 2016, which he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
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 danger to society may be suspended until they recover. However, the stipulated suspension of sentence is often not implemented.
Turkish authorities have frequently been criticized for their systematic disregard of the health needs of prisoners. Every year, rights groups report the deaths of dozens of sick prisoners, either while behind bars or shortly after their release, which often comes at the end-stage of their illness.
Turkey recorded 709 deaths in prison in the first 11 months of 2024, according to data from the Ministry of Justice shared in response to a parliamentary inquiry.
