The wife of a critically ill inmate has made a public appeal on X urging authorities to immediately release her husband so he can seek proper medical care.
Mehmet Parlak, suffering from kidney disease, has lost over 20 kilograms in the past few months due to digestive issues. Additionally, he has experienced a 70 percent loss of kidney function. According to his wife, Nurten Parlak, her ailing husband has undergone numerous medical examinations over the past two months without an effective treatment plan.
“Despite several test results indicating serious problems with my husband’s health, the Council of Forensic Medicine [ATK] has not recommended his release,” Nurten Parlak said in a voice recording. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw him. He looked so frail, I believe he’s close to death.”
The ATK has frequently come under criticism over its questionable reports that find ailing inmates fit to remain in prison. Rights advocates slam the agency over its lack of independence from political influence and its role in compounding the persecution of political prisoners.
Parlak, a former court clerk, was dismissed by a government decree following a 2016 failed coup in Turkey and was sentenced to over six years in prison in 2022 for his alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the 2013 corruption investigations, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members 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 to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following the abortive putsch in 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
After a kidney transplant in 2013, Parlak had been seeing a doctor every three months and following a special diet and hygienic procedures as prescribed.
However, since his imprisonment, Parlak has not received proper medical care, leading to a rapid deterioration of his health. He has suffered medical emergencies, including severe diarrhea lasting a month due to prison food.
Last May, human rights advocates launched a social media campaign calling for Parlak’s immediate release.
Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) visited Parlak in prison and said he appeared terribly sick. “The problem with his kidney has reached a critical point, and he may need dialysis soon. He’s already living on a transplanted kidney; it’s unbelievable he’s being kept in prison,” said Gergerlioğlu.
Every year, rights groups report the death of dozens of sick prisoners, either while behind bars or shortly after their belated release, which often comes at the end-stage of their illnesses.
