Turkish prison authorities have taken away a hearing aid from businessman Erol Boydak, who is serving a prison sentence over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, because of the device ’s Bluetooth capability, the TR724 news website reported.
Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmaker and human rights defender Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu raised the case at a news conference in parliament on Wednesday, saying Boydak, who has 50 percent hearing loss, relies on the device to hear.
Gergerlioğlu criticized the decision called on the Justice Ministry to intervene.
Gergerlioğlu also said Boydak was being held with 17 other prisoners in a ward designed for eight and that the food was inadequate. He said referrals to the prison infirmary could take up to six months and transfers to an outside hospital as long as a year.
Boydak, a former executive of Boydak Holding, is serving a prison sentence of more than seven years. He has been held at Sincan Prison in Ankara since 2023. He was convicted in 2018 of membership in a terrorist organization over his alleged links to the Gülen movement. Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld his conviction in 2023.
Founded in the central Turkish city of Kayseri in 1957, Boydak Holding grew into one of Turkey’s largest manufacturing groups, with flagship furniture brands such as Istikbal, Bellona and Mondi that still dominate the domestic market. The holding was also active in the energy and banking sectors and had annual turnover of more than $2 billion and employed over 13,000 people before it was confiscated. Its chairman, Hacı Boydak, and CEO Memduh Boydak were arrested in March 2016, months before a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, on charges of supporting the Gülen movement.
In 2018 Turkish courts sentenced Memduh Boydak to 18 years, Hacı Boydak to nearly 12 years and Şükrü Boydak to 10 years in prison, while Erol Boydak and several others received prison sentences of more than seven years.
The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the convictions and confiscation orders in 2023, clearing the way for the permanent transfer of the family’s stakes in 35 companies to the state.
The government has since sold major businesses formerly owned by the family in multibillion-lira deals, including furniture maker Bellona for TL 8.1 billion ($213 million), İstikbal for TL 16.5 billion ($340 million), cable manufacturer HES Kablo for TL 18.6 billion (about $450 million) and energy company RHG Enertürk for $110 million.
