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Radical Islamist Turkish daily Yeni Akit columnist Mehtap Yılmaz’s hate campaign targeting cancer patient Ümit Gökhasan and his release from prison delayed the medical treatment of the former police superintendent, who died on Monday.

Yılmaz had started a social media campaign on Twitter against Gökhasan’s release in May. Gökhasan was arrested on March 8, 2017 on charges of links to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, and was sentenced to six years, 11 months in prison. His case was awaiting review by the Supreme Court of Appeals.

In one of her tweets Yılmaz called on Turkey’s Constitutional Court and Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül to prevent the release of Gökhasan. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu were also tagged in the tweet. “Do not let FETÖ [a derogatory term coined by ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to refer to the Gülen movement] member Ümit Gökhasan, who was dismissed [from his job] by a [government] decree, be released,” Yılmaz said.

The Turkish president has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, 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. Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.

Following the failed coup the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Over 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors as well as 20,571 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.

Gökhasan was first diagnosed with stomach cancer in January 2020. He underwent surgery on February 13, 2020 in which his stomach and part of his esophagus were removed. He was sent back to prison two weeks later and began receiving chemotherapy.

His treatment was stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after which the cancer spread to other parts of his body. His wife tried to make his problems heard by authorities, but to no avail.

Gökhasan’s death was announced by his wife, Şükran Gökhasan, on her Twitter account. She told Bold Medya the details of his last moments. “My husband lost consciousness around 1 a.m., and he died shortly thereafter,” she said. “He suffered greatly.”

People affiliated with the Gülen movement have been facing discrimination, hate speech and persecution in Turkey since the corruption investigations of December 2013. According to the Stockholm Center for Freedom’s May 2017 report, “Erdoğan’s Campaign of Hate Speech Case of Targeting the Gülen Movement: 2013-2017,” President Erdoğan himself developed a unique vocabulary of 240 hateful slurs and insults that singled out the Gülen movement, including a malignant tumor that poses a great threat to humanity, blood sucking leeches, viruses, hashashins and lunatics.

Vilification and demonization of the movement reached its climax in the aftermath of the abortive putsch of July 2016. In a public rally in August 2016, then-Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci told thousands of pro-government supporters in front of the cameras that “we will make them beg. We will stuff them into holes, they will suffer such punishment in those holes that they will never see God’s sun as long as they breathe. They will not hear a human voice again. ‘Kill us’ they will beg.”

In a recent example, Sevda Noyan, a writer and staunch supporter of President Erdoğan, said on the pro-government Ülke TV last May that she and her family were caught by surprise in the July 15 coup attempt but that they were equipped for any similar future incident and could take out 50 people. Noyan also admitted that they had already made lists of the neighbors that they would target in such a case.

Muttalip Kutluk Özgüven, a professor of communications, went so far as to suggest that supporters of the Gülen movement should be sent to rehabilitation camps and subjected to psychological treatment. Özgüven’s controversial remarks came during a program on the pro-government Akit TV.

The professor complained that the fight against the movement was not being adequately conducted. He also said these people had earlier taken advantage of benefits from the Turkish state such as public education, so they have to serve the state. “Their bodies do not belong to them. They have to serve Turkey’s interests. So I can’t accept these people being against the state. We have not used psychological methods on them,” he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled this kind of speech. The pandemic is portrayed by the country’s pro-government “experts” as a tool of biological warfare, a selective or smart virus developed by Zionists, Westerners/dominant powers and people affiliated with the Gülen movement or the Rockefeller family in order to “subjugate intransigent countries to their will,” “redesign the world,” “launch chaos in the country,” “create ‘Lego’ religions” or “occupy minds.”

Any kind of negative development in the country is immediately projected on minorities and members of the Gülen movement. President Erdoğan himself made a habit of using the same political language whenever he found himself in a political bind. Dehumanizing a persecuted faith-based group such as the Gülen movement and others to this end is quite permissible in his playbook. SCF

Bahtiyar Fırat, a Kurdish man who had been missing since October 14, has re-emerged in detention at the organized crimes bureau of the İstanbul police and seems to have suffered physical trauma during his time in custody, according to his family, the Duvar news website reported.

His family said Fırat had lost a lot of weight and had marks of beating and torture on his arms and face. “We have been searching for him for 45 days. The prosecutor’s office claimed they did not know where he was, but we got a phone call on November 26 from a police station telling us that he was with them.”

The family also said they did not know why Fırat was held in detention. “He can barely speak because of the trauma he experienced. Whatever he has done, it does not justify torture.”

Bahtiyar Fırat, a school bus driver who lived in the southeastern city of Hakkari, was on his way to Tehran when he was detained by airport police at İstanbul Airport. He was told he was going to be handed over to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

Fırat was released a few hours later but had already missed his flight. On the way to a hotel, he noticed his taxi was being followed by another car.

He immediately called his wife, Esra Fırat, and told her he was being followed and asked her to contact the public prosecutor’s office if she could not reach his phone. Esra Fırat said she had not heard from her husband since this last call.

Fırat said they were anxious about her husband’s well-being. “Even if he did commit a crime, we need to know where he is. We have been waiting for the prosecutor to give us details about his situation for a week,” she added.

Nearly 30 people have reportedly been abducted by Turkish intelligence since 2016. Two of them were able to flee the country and told foreign media about the torture they had endured during their enforced disappearances.

Most of the abductions after 2016 targeted members of the Gülen movement. The Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, of masterminding a coup attempt in July 2016 and labels it a terrorist organization. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup or any terrorist activity.

Seven people went missing under suspicious circumstances in Turkey in 2019. Six of them — Salim Zeybek, Erkan Irmak, Yasin Ugan, Özgür Kaya, Mustafa Yılmaz and Gökhan Türkmen — mysteriously reappeared in police custody in Ankara after six to nine-month absences. Salim Zeybek’s wife, Fatma Betül Zeybek, was with him when three men in a vehicle forced them to stop their car and abducted her husband.

Apparently intimated, all of them except two kept their silence after their reappearance. Türkmen, however, revealed in a court hearing on February 10, 2020 that he had been held incommunicado at a black site in Ankara run by Turkey’s intelligence agency and subjected to severe torture during his 271-day stay. Türkmen was the object of threats and was sexually harassed and abused during his enforced disappearance. He also alleged that he was visited in prison and threatened no less than six times by officials who introduced themselves as intelligence officers, pressuring him to retract his allegations of abduction and torture made at the February hearing.

The other man, Yasin Ugan, also testified at a court hearing on June 23 that he had been tortured for six months after being abducted on February 13, 2019 by security officers, with his head covered with a black plastic bag most of the time.

One of the men, Yusuf Bilge Tunç, who disappeared in broad daylight on August 6, 2019, is still missing. All the efforts of his family and human rights defenders to find out what happened to him have proven to be of no avail.

The authorities have turned a deaf ear to inquiries from international courts and organizations concerning Tunç’s whereabouts, dismissing a UN query by saying that they were also searching for him while leaving questions from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) with an October 2020 deadline still unanswered.

According to Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, the government will not respond to the ECtHR’s queries as was the case with the six other abductees.

“They reappeared all of a sudden in police custody just before the ECtHR deadlines passed,” he said.

In a recent joint letter UN special rapporteurs expressed their concern about the “systematic practice of state-sponsored extraterritorial abductions and forcible return of Turkish nationals suspected of involvement with the Gülen movement from multiple States to Turkey.” SCF

A former air force cadet sentenced to life in prison on coup charges succumbed to bone cancer on Friday in a hospital in Eskişehir, Turkish Minute reported.

Yusuf Kurt, 25, a former student at the Turkish Air Force Academy, was among 70 air force cadets sentenced to life on charges of attempting to destroy the constitutional order by means of a coup attempt in July 2016.

Kurt was tried by the İstanbul 24th High Criminal Court and was released after sentencing in January due to his deteriorating health.

Melek Çetinkaya, the mother of another air cadet who was jailed for life on coup charges, announced Kurt’s death on Twitter.

Çetinkaya has been fighting for the release of cadets who claim they were unaware that a coup was underway as a putschist bid unfolded on July 15, 2016, when rogue soldiers failed in their attempt to take over the government after skirmishes with pro-government factions.

The cadets had said on the night of the coup they were taken to İstanbul in buses from Yalova and that they did not know they were part of a coup attempt.

The air force cadets said the only surprising thing on July 15 was an unplanned morning visit by Air Force Commander Gen. Abidin Ünal to their training camp in Yalova.

Turkish media reported claims that during a speech to cadets in Yalova, Ünal underlined the importance of carrying out the orders of their commanders.

Columnist Ahmet Nesin wrote on the Artıgerçek news website that during his unplanned visit, Ünal told the commander of the camp to cancel all training activities in the afternoon. “He told the commander, ‘Don’t tire the boys out; they’ll get tired this evening’,” Nesin reported.

After the July 15 coup attempt, various courts sentenced a total of 355 military cadets to life imprisonment for “attempting to overthrow the government.”

Ümit Gökhasan, a former police superintendent who was not released from prison until his cancer had spread to other parts of his body, has died, Bold Medya reported.

Gökhasan’s death was announced by his wife, Şükran Gökhasan, on her Twitter account. She told Bold Medya the details of his last moments. “My husband lost consciousness around 1 a.m., and he died shortly thereafter,” she said. “He suffered greatly.”

Gökhasan was arrested on March 8, 2017 on charges of links to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, and was sentenced to six years, 11 months in prison. His case was awaiting review by the Supreme Court of Appeals.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, 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. Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.

Following the abortive putsch, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Over 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors as well as 20,571 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny. Tens of thousands were jailed on terror-related charges.

Gökhasan was first diagnosed with stomach cancer in January 2020. He underwent surgery on February 13, 2020 in which his stomach and part of his esophagus were removed. He was sent back to prison two weeks later and began receiving chemotherapy.

His treatment was stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after which the cancer spread to other parts of his body. His wife tried to make his problems heard by authorities, but to no avail.

The Afyon State Hospital in western Turkey issued a health report saying that Gökhasan could stay in prison and that there was no reason to postpone his sentence.

The prosecutor’s office denied Gökhasan’s release from prison based on the report. However, when the family objected, the hospital revised its decision and issued a report stating he was 80 percent disabled.

The prosecutor’s office issued his release based on the new report on August 7, but it was too late. Gökhasan’s condition took a turn for the worse last month as the cancer had spread to his lungs, spleen and bones.

Gökhasan was convicted of membership in a terrorist organization for depositing money in Bank Asya, a bank affiliated with the Gülen movement, and using the ByLock messaging app on his smartphone.

ByLock is an encrypted messaging app used in smartphones and was available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Turkish authorities claim that ByLock is a communication tool exclusively used by members of the Gülen movement to ensure the privacy of their conversations. The app was permanently shut down in March 2016, before the movement was declared a terrorist organization by the Turkish government.

In an opinion on the summary extradition of alleged members of the Gülen movement from Malaysia to Turkey, the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated that “such regular daily activities as having a bank account and using a communication application” could not be considered evidences of a crime by themselves.

The situation of seriously ill prisoners has been scrutinized by human rights activists and opposition politicians.

Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a prominent human rights activist and deputy from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has depicted the deaths of critically ill prisoners in Turkey who are not released in time to receive proper medical treatment as acts of “murder” committed by the state.

“These deaths are acts of murder. The ruling party is the murderer, and state institutions along with the Ministry of Justice involved in this wickedness are accomplices to the crime,” he told the Kronos news website.

According to Gergerlioğlu, prison administrations, judicial bodies, deputies in parliament, the Ministry of Justice, and some doctors treat prisoners according to their “type of crime.” “Even doctors treat their patients according to the prisoners’ ideological leaning and affiliation. Their most basic rights are violated. They apply the so-called ‘enemy law.’ Doctors, hospitals, gendarmes, prison guards and lawyers all act as if they made a joint decision.”

According to Gergerlioğlu sick prisoners are released when the authorities realize they will die soon. “They don’t want to be held responsible if an inmate dies in prison. So they release them in great haste when they realize the prisoner will die soon. And they do indeed die a short time after their release. When I ask the Justice Ministry for the number of deaths in prison, they give very low figures. Very low because they don’t want prisoners to die in prison. They keep them until the very last moment, and when they realize they are going to die, they release them immediately.”

According to the Human Rights Association (IHD) there are currently 1,605 sick prisoners in Turkish prisons, 604 of whom are critically ill. Although most of the seriously ill patients have forensic and medical reports deeming them unfit to remain in prison, they are not released. Authorities refuse to release them on the grounds that they pose a potential danger to society. In the first eight months of 2020, five critically ill prisoners passed away because they were not released in time to receive proper medical treatment.

An İstanbul court on Monday sentenced jailed investigative journalist Mehmet Baransu, a former correspondent for the now-defunct Taraf newspaper, to 17 years, one month in prison for publishing leaked government documents, Turkish media reported.

The İstanbul 2nd High Criminal Court convicted Baransu of “disclosing information that must be kept confidential for reasons relating to the security or domestic and foreign political interests of the state through the press” in a news report published in Taraf on November 28, 2013 titled “The Decision to end Gülen was reached at the National Security Council [MGK] in 2004.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, a faith-based group highly critical of him, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, 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.

Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Fethullah Gülen of masterminding. He locked up tens of thousands including many prosecutors, judges and police officers involved in the investigations as well as journalists who reported on them. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.

MGK documents published by Baransu showed that, contrary to what Erdoğan claimed, the government had been targeting the Gülen movement long before 2013.

The Taraf newspaper, shut down in 2016, gained prominence for its liberal stance and its extensive reporting on the operations of Turkey’s deep state, which is alleged to be a group of anti-democratic coalitions within the Turkish political system, including high-level figures from the Turkish military, security agencies and judiciary as well as the mafia.

Baransu was arrested in March 2015 for allegedly procuring and publishing secret state documents in connection with the disclosure of a war plan called the Egemen (Sovereign) Operation Plan.

A Mersin court handed down a prison sentence of 19 years, six months to Baransu in July on three separate charges with the claim that he had published classified information with “terror motives” and not for purposes of journalism. He was convicted of “violating privacy,” “disclosing classified information” and “membership in an armed terrorist organization” over his 2013 reporting for Taraf of an alleged customs fraud involving the import of genetically modified rice by a pro-government businessman, which he claimed was hushed up by then-Prime Minister Erdoğan.

According to Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) 2020 World Press Freedom Index in which Turkey was ranked 154th among 180 countries in terms of press freedom, Turkey is the world’s biggest jailer of professional journalists. The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) has documented that 174 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey, while 167 wanted and are either in exile or remain at large. The Turkish government has seized nearly 200 media outlets including the country’s largest since 2015.

Incarcerated in Silivri Prison in İstanbul, Baransu faces nearly a thousand years in jail as part of scores of other cases. Stockholmcf

When the Christchurch terror attack happened, Zeena Ali was inspired to join the police to help her Muslim community.

And this week she will not only graduate as a police officer, but will become the first in New Zealand to don a police-issued hijab as part of her uniform.

Ali, 30, even worked with police to design a garment that is both functional for her new role and considerate of her religion.

She told the Herald the design process started even before she started at Police College, with her trialling various materials and styles and offering recommendations and improvements.

Further tweaks and changes were made before the recruit course started so she had the required gear – and she even has a version to wear for graduation.

Ali will be posted in the Tāmaki Makaurau area and is excited to get out on the beat.

“It feels great to be able to go out and show the New Zealand Police hijab as part of my uniform,” she said.

“I think that seeing it, more Muslim women will want to join as well.”

Ali remembers the moment she decided to shift her career from customer service to law enforcement.

“One of the security guards I worked with was going to join the police and she asked me to help her,” she said.

“As I started that process the Christchurch terror attack happened and that’s when I realised more Muslim women were needed in the police, to go and support people with things like this.

“If I had joined the police earlier I would have been down there to help.”

Ali was born in Fiji and moved to New Zealand with her family when she was a child.

She said she was proud to represent the Muslim community – particularly women – and hoped to inspire others to join the police and help broaden the demographic of the front line.

Having a police-branded hijab would mean women who may not have previously considered policing because they were not sure of how the role would incorporate their religion or culture.

“It’s great – the Police went out of their way to make sure the hijab I have on meets health and safety requirements as well as my own personal needs,” she explained.

“They worked closely with the Massey Design School, they came and visited me and we made tweaks to the hijab.

“I am proud to wear it and I hope other people out there will be proud of me as well.”

Ali said she appreciated police considering her personal needs – both at college and in her role going forward.

“At college they had a prayer room and halal meals,” she said.

“When I had to go swimming they were ok with me wearing long sleeves.”

Valuing diversity is one of the six core values for Police – alongside professionalism, respect, integrity, empathy and commitment to Māori and the Treaty of Waitangi.

“We recognise the value different perspectives and experiences bring to making us better at what we do,” Police said.

“We need people with a range of skills, backgrounds and experience levels – diversity is essential so that we can effectively serve the needs of New Zealand’s communities now and in the future.”

Police said there were certain qualities and skills they look for during the recruitment process as they worked to build a “high-performance culture, where different perspectives are valued”.

“By reflecting the communities we serve and appreciating different thinking, we aim to achieve better problem-solving and results.”

Ali’s wing, who graduate tomorrow, was “highly diverse” and female recruits outnumbered their male colleagues.

Of the graduates, 51.3 per cent were females – and 48.7 per cent of the graduates were ethnicities other than European.

Māori officers make up 25 per cent of the wing.

“I think it’s great,” Ali told the Herald.

“And we need more Muslim women to help in the community, most of them are too scared to talk to the police and would probably shut the front door if a man turned up to talk to them.

“If we have more women turning up, a more diverse front line, then we can reduce more crime.”

In 2008, Police introduced a turban into the uniform and Nelson Constable Jagmohan Malhi became the first officer to wear it on duty.

Until then he had to forgo the turban on duty, even though it is considered an important part of his Sikh faith. nzherald

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu has revealed that two civil servants who were previously removed from their jobs as part of a massive purge launched by the Turkish government in the wake of a 2016 coup attempt have died under the tyranny of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Gergerlioğlu, also a member of parliament’s Human Rights Inquiry Committee, on Wednesday made a public statement in the parliament, focusing on human rights violations in Turkey that include political prisoners who have lost their lives due to criminal neglect of government authorities.

“Almost every day, I reveal the death of a purge victim in Turkey. I do not care about their religious beliefs, political views, dispositions or races. The only thing I care about is the fact that they fall victim to the tyranny [of the AKP] and they die in disappointment,” he said in a tweet on Wednesday.

Former police officer Ahmet Kaplan, who was serving the fifth year of his sentence of over seven years in the İskenderun T Type Prison, was diagnosed with lung cancer in October. He lost his life on Tuesday after cancer spread to his kidneys at the 4th stage.

Although he was sent to the İskenderun State Hospital from time to time for treatment, he was not allowed to stay there and his petitions demanding a release from prison due to his deteriorating health condition were not accepted by the prison authorities.

Forty-eight years old Kaplan, who was a father of two, was to be released under judicial supervision in four months.

“You have committed another murder! How many cases of criminal neglect have we seen so far? Ahmet Kaplan had advanced lung cancer. He died behind bars. He was released in a coffin. Shame on you,” Gergerlioğlu tweeted, addressing Turkey’s Justice Ministery on Wednesday.

Gülhan Çolakoğlu, a former chemistry teacher in Turkey, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2017, after the arrest of her husband Sefer Çolakoğlu, who was also a chemistry teacher, over coup-related charges in late 2016.

The 45-year-old teacher, who started receiving chemotherapy treatment in Turkey and underwent a total of five surgeries in over three years, lost her life on Wednesday as the cancer spread to her liver.

Çolakoğlu formerly received a sentence of six years and three months over links to the Gülen movement following the 2016 putsch bid and was banned from leaving the country, which prevented her from receiving the necessary treatment in Germany.

She scheduled an appointment at the Immun Onkologisches Zentrum, an oncology center in Cologne, in March but couldn’t receive treatment there because the authorities did not grant her a passport despite many petitions filed with the local and regional courts in her hometown Kayseri.

The HDP lawmaker slammed the ruling AKP government for leaving her to die in Turkey while they could have lifted her travel ban and allow her to receive treatment in Germany.

An indictment drafted by an İstanbul prosecutor seeks a prison sentence of up to 15 years for Erkan Akkuş, a former anchorman at the now-closed Bugün TV, on charges of terrorist organization membership.

Akkuş, for whom a detention warrant had been outstanding since a failed coup attempt in 2016, was detained in August in northern Kocaeli province after an anonymous tip was received by the local police.

He was subsequently arrested and put in pretrial detention in İstanbul’s notorious Silivri Prison, where thousands of people are jailed, mostly on politically motivated charges.

The journalist’s trial will be held at a high criminal court in İstanbul.

Turkey accuses the faith-based Gülen movement of orchestrating the failed coup on July 15, 2016, although the movement strongly denies any involvement.

The Turkish government has launched a large-scale crackdown against its followers since then, but the movement became a target of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after a 2013 police investigation that accused his close circle of corruption.

Bugün TV, a news channel owned by the İpek Medya Group, was seized by the government in November 2015 and turned into a pro-Erdoğan media outlet. It was shut down following the coup attempt.

Dozens of journalists have been arrested and received lengthy prison sentences over alleged Gülen links.

One of the leading jailers of journalists in the world, Turkey was ranked 154th out of 180 countries in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

A young woman with physical disabilities has been handed down a jail sentence of six years, three months on terrorism charges due to alleged links to the Gülen movement, accused by the Turkish government of masterminding a failed coup in 2016, Bold Medya reported on Wednesday.

The jail sentence was ordered for Fatma Cömert, 28, by the Aydın 2nd High Criminal in a development that shocked the young woman, who is wheelchair bound and was born with disabilities that prevent her from using her hands and legs properly.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) label the Gülen movement, inspired by US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, as a terrorist organization and immediately blamed the group for the failed coup that took place on July 15, 2016. The movement strongly denies any involvement in the failed putsch.

“I am a person who has to lie in bed all day. My mother takes care of all my needs. Why they have given me jail sentence [I simply can’t understand],” Cömert said, expressing frustration over the verdict.

An investigation was launched into Cömert in May 2019 on charges of terrorist organization membership due to her alleged links to the Gülen movement. In the first hearing of her trial in September 2019, the woman was told by the judge that she did not have to attend the other hearings because of her disability. The trial was concluded on Nov. 5 and she was sentenced to prison for using ByLock, a smart phone application that is believed to have been a secret communication tool among followers of the Gülen movement.

If the sentence is upheld by an appeals court, Cömert will have to go to prison. The woman said she hopes the higher court will overturn the Aydın court’s ruling since going to jail would be tantamount to death as she cannot continue living alone without the help of her family.

Cömert’s prison sentence attracted widespread criticism on social media, with many expressing outrage. Rebecca Harms, a former member of the European Parliament and an expert on Turkey, tweeted: “There are two many awful stories about the fate of people imprisoned in Turkey. The case of Fatma Cömert is especially terrible. What can be done?”

Harms was appealing to a group of European politicians and human rights organizations about Cömert’s case.

Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a member of the Turkish Parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and a prominent human rights activist, asked in a tweet aimed at Turkey’s Justice Ministry, “What conscience would accept such a court ruling?” as he expressed shock about the prison sentence given to the disabled woman.

The UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated in October 2018 that detention, arrest and conviction based on ByLock use in Turkey violated of Articles 19, 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

As part of a massive government-led crackdown on the Gülen  movement, Turkey has removed over 130,000 civil servants from their jobs and arrested or detained nearly 80,000 people in addition to prosecuting more than 511,000 over suspected links to the self-exiled preacher.