A 73-year-old Turkish prisoner convicted over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement died Monday after authorities kept him incarcerated despite his deteriorating health, repeated appeals for his release and warnings that he could die without urgent medical intervention, the TR724 news website reported.
Abdullah Tırpan died at İstanbul’s Başakşehir Çam and Sakura City Hospital, where he had been transferred from Metris Prison last week. His left leg was amputated below the knee on October 22 due to advanced gangrene, but doctors subsequently considered a second operation to remove more of the limb because the infection had spread farther up his leg.
His condition worsened following the surgery, and he was transferred to intensive care and placed on a ventilator on Sunday.
His daughter, Esra Tırpan Yakut, said Sunday that the family had learned of his transfer to intensive care through Turkey’s electronic health records system because they had not been adequately informed about his condition.
“My father’s heart stopped, and they are keeping it beating with medication,” she said, describing what the family had been told. “They have already intubated him. Please pray for him. There is nothing more we can do.”
Tırpan’s death came after months of appeals from his family, lawmakers and human rights advocates for the suspension of his prison sentence on medical grounds.
Despite suffering from diabetes, hypertension, nerve damage and serious circulatory problems, Tırpan had repeatedly been found fit to remain in prison by state medical authorities.
Turkey’s Council of Forensic Medicine, a state body responsible for assessing prisoners’ fitness to remain incarcerated, concluded on December 17, 2025, that he could continue serving his sentence. Medical boards at Tekirdağ City Hospital reached similar conclusions in May and June 2026.
The June report documented several chronic illnesses but concluded that Tırpan could manage his daily activities without assistance and did not require the suspension of his sentence. Another examination on October 6 reportedly found no medical obstacle to his continued imprisonment.
Independent lawmaker Mustafa Yeneroğlu, who visited Tırpan at Metris Prison earlier this month, warned on October 9 that the prisoner could die without urgent medical intervention.
Yeneroğlu said Tırpan had advanced gangrene, severe discoloration and large open wounds on his left leg. He was unable to stand or meet his basic needs on his own, according to the lawmaker, who questioned medical assessments finding him capable of remaining in prison.
Tırpan was serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence for membership in an armed terrorist organization over his alleged involvement in the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted the movement since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the investigations as a Gülenist conspiracy and designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after a coup attempt in July of that year that he accused Gülen of orchestrating. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Tırpan’s daughter appealed on X on October 20 for the suspension of her father’s sentence after doctors obtained the family’s consent to amputate his leg.
“We are asking for the suspension of his sentence in the name of justice and humanity,” she wrote. “Please help make our voices heard. Our entire family is devastated.”
On Monday morning, before Tırpan’s death was announced, Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), shared his latest medical report on X and criticized authorities for keeping him incarcerated despite his life-threatening condition.
“Who is responsible for this?” Gergerlioğlu asked, saying authorities had failed to explain why Tırpan’s sentence had not been suspended.
The lawmaker said he was taking legal steps against those he held responsible for the handling of the case.
“Everyone will be held accountable before the courts,” he wrote.
Under Article 16 of Turkey’s Law on the Execution of Sentences, a prison sentence may be suspended in certain cases involving serious illness or disability when a prisoner cannot sustain life under prison conditions and is not considered a serious danger to society.
The Justice Ministry says authorities can reopen the medical review process if a prisoner’s health deteriorates, even after an earlier request has been rejected.
Tırpan, a father of five who worked as a butcher for 55 years in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ, was convicted on August 8, 2019. Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld his conviction on March 7, 2022.
According to earlier SCF reporting, the evidence cited against him included having shares in a company operating a private school allegedly affiliated with the Gülen movement, attending religious discussion meetings, making charitable donations to the movement, subscribing to the now-closed Zaman newspaper and maintaining an account at Bank Asya, a bank formerly affiliated with the movement.
The court also cited his decision to send his children and grandchildren to movement-associated schools and his possession of religious publications.
Tırpan denied the criminal allegations.
Since the coup attempt in 2016, the Turkish government has accepted such activities as having an account at the now-shuttered Bank Asya, one of Turkey’s largest commercial banks at the time; using the ByLock messaging application, an encrypted messaging app that was available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play; and subscribing to the now-shut-down Zaman daily or other publications affiliated with members of the movement as benchmarks for identifying and arresting alleged followers of the Gülen movement on charges of membership in a terrorist organization.
He was first arrested in August 2016 and spent approximately 19 months in pretrial detention before being released pending the outcome of his legal proceedings. He was imprisoned again in February 2025 following the finalization of his sentence.
Tırpan’s death comes amid longstanding criticism of Turkey’s treatment of seriously ill prisoners. Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned that delays in medical treatment and decisions by the Council of Forensic Medicine finding seriously ill inmates fit to remain incarcerated can put their lives at risk.
This article is republished from the Stockholm Center for Freedom.
