Under arrest for months, 62-year-old teacher dies of cancer in prison
Date posted: June 8, 2017
Arrested for raising donations on behalf of a Gülen movement-linked charity, 62-year-old religion and ethics teacher Hüseyin Pembe passed away after his battle with cancer in prison on June 1.
With the starting date for his imprisonment still unknown, Pembe has been under arrest in Samsun prison for at least four months.
According to Turkish media and several social media accounts, Pembe was diagnosed with cancer while he was under arrest over Gulen links. After a surgery at a hospital, he was reportedly sent back to the prison where his medical condition got worse under poor conditions and he passed away.
Pembe’s body was buried in his hometown in Kayseri province and his sister, also under arrest, was able to attend the ceremony only with gendarmeries in company, media reported.
Turkish government accuses the movement of masterminding the July 15, 2016 coup attempt and it has detained more than 120,000 people in its crackdown against the group so far.
Several claims and accusations have been voiced, and the Hizmet movement has been described as a gang and a “parallel structure,” Are these accusations based on concrete evidence? No. Fabricated news published by pro-government media outlets, unfounded accusations and slanderous claims that are legally null and void have been refuted one by one. However, the pro-government media does not care about this, since they do not care in the least about rights or the rule of law.
Since the attempted military coup on July 15, the government, empowered by a state of emergency, has fired or suspended about 125,000 people, of whom nearly 40,000 have been arrested, and tens of thousands of others taken into custody. As a result, roughly 800,000 people have been completely cut off from any economic safety net.
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