Family, friends losing hope as Calgary imam arrested in Turkey remains imprisoned

Davud Hanci, in white shirt at right, hosts MP Michelle Rempel at his family home in Calgary.
Davud Hanci, in white shirt at right, hosts MP Michelle Rempel at his family home in Calgary.


Date posted: July 26, 2017

Shawn Logan

For a year, Calgary imam Davud Hanci has spent most of his days in solitary confinement in Turkey, accused of being a terrorist linked to failed 2016 coup attempt.

Last week, Hanci made his latest court appearance, which like many others before resulted in prosecutors working for the government of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan petitioning the judge for more time to gather evidence, leaving the the dual-Canadian and Turkish citizen the languish in prison, with no resolution in sight.

“They’re just holding him there and they don’t want to release him because they don’t have any real evidence,” said Malik Muradov, executive director of Calgary’s Intercultural Dialogue Institute and a friend of Hanci.

“He’s just in limbo.”

Hanci was arrested on July 23, 2016, a week after a failed military coup, accused in state media of being the right hand man of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S. cleric who is the founder of the Hizmet, an Islamic social and educational movement, labeled a terrorist organization by the Erdogan government in December 2015.

He remains imprisoned at a jail in Sakarya Province, east of Istanbul.

Family and associates of Hanci, who works as an imam for Correctional Service Canada, said he had returned to his homeland last summer along with his wife and two young sons to visit his father, who had been suffering with heart issues.

But he was soon swept up in mass arrests in the country during the aftermath of the failed coup, among the tens of thousands of Turkish citizens detained, among them journalists, educators and bureaucrats.

Following his arrest, Turkish media released photos of a man who looks like Hanci, suggesting he was from Pennsylvania and was working for U.S.-based Gulen, a longtime critic and former ally of Erdogan, a contention that perplexed family and friends who have steadfastly maintained his innocence.

Hansi’s wife, Rumeysa, has claimed that he was suffered psychological torture during his imprisonment and he has had minimal contact with family and limited access to his lawyer.

Most troubling for Muradov is the fact that through numerous appearances before a judge, he’s yet to be charged with any crimes, with state prosecutors continuing to delay the case as they attempt to find some evidence that would link him to the coup.

“It’s unbelievable what’s happening — it’s against international law and human rights that people are being persecuted for being associated with a movement,” said Muradov, who admits to being a devotee of the Hizmet movement.

“He should have been released by now. It’s been a year and he’s been in solitary confinement.

“I can’t imagine what he’s going through.”

Reached last week in Toronto, Hansi’s sister-in-law Ruveyda Durmus said his wife is still struggling with the extended detention, and the family fears speaking publicly about his case could be used against him by Turkish prosecutors.

“We’re starting to lose hope,” she said.

Like Hansi’s family, Muradov said he’s also beginning to lose hope, and fears that his friend could remain imprisoned indefinitely.

“There are so many people now who are trapped in Turkey or in jail,” he said.

“It is painful, and there’s only one hope and that’s for God — there’s nothing else we can hope for to help him.”

 

Source: Calgary Sun , July 24, 2017


Related News

US, Gülen to trigger artificial earthquake(!) in İstanbul, Ankara mayor says

Ankara’s mayor Melih Gökçek claimed in series of tweets from his personal account on Saturday that external powers, including the US, is planning to trigger a artificial eartquake in İstanbul along theGülen Movement. “I had said FETO and US expects an earthquake in İstanbul in August 14 similar to the Gölcük eartquake in 1999. I ruined their plan after revealing in TVs. But the propoganda continues. The plan was to trigger an earthquake in İstanbul to destroy Turkey’s economy as US promised to FETO,” Gökçek wrote.

Imam who lives in rural Pennsylvania arouses praise, concerns

Andrew Conte SAYLORSBURG — Just a short drive on a two-lane road from the Dunkin’ Donuts here, the Golden Generation Retreat Center hardly seems like the home of one of the world’s leading Islamic thinkers. A metal gate at the driveway stands open, and no fences or walls protect the 25-acre property from suburban homes […]

Deporting Gülen would undercut NATO

Sacrificing Gülen, however, will not bring Turkey in from the cold. While the pretext might have been rooting out Gülen’s followers, the reality is that Erdogan has used the purge to target secularists, liberals, and those officers whose training and experience in NATO he believes make them prone to oppose his vision and goals for Turkey.

Turkey ‘looking for scapegoats’ by linking schools in Nigeria to failed coup

Speaking with TheCable in an interview on Friday, Cemal Yigit, spokesman of NTIC, said Gulen does not own the Turkish schools in Nigeria, and that the schools are the property of private investors – some of them Nigerians. He said that the Turkish government was on a purge of the opposition in Turkey, and that it was trying to decimate any organisation that shared the philosophy of Gulen by tagging them terrorists.

Why Gulen Should Not Be Extradited

To extradite Gulen would not only imply a high chance of an unfair trial, but would also sound the death knell of a blueprint for global peace. Gulen’s ideas have all the potential for a global approach to peace-building. John L. Esposito, a professor at Georgetown University and a highly respected expert on Islam, called Gulen’s initiatives “extraordinarily unique”, and suggested it would be “wise” for other Muslim movements to emulate them.

Muslim Leader Condemns Synagogue Killings

Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish Muslim preacher who lives in exile in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania and is sought by the Ankara for alleged involvement in the 2016 coup attempt there, condemned the massacre at the synagogue in Pennsylvania.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Smear campaign against Gülen today harsher than in Feb. 28 era

Liberia Turkish Relations Gets Boost with Dialogue Center

A Very Predictable Coup?

Call for Papers – International Conference on “Indo-Turkish Dialogue: Historical, Social and Cultural Perspectives”

Does the Gülen movement securitize the Kurdish question?

Niagara Foundation Michigan bestows 2013 Peace and Dialogue Awards

Gülen makes donation to needy Myanmar Muslims

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News