87-year old prisoner gets 11-day solitary confinement for ‘hoping release one day’


Date posted: November 28, 2017

Ali Osman Karahan, an 87-year-old Turkish man who has been kept in an Isparta prison for almost 15 months over alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group, was given 11-day solitary confinement for relieving other inmates by saying: “if you are not guilty, you will be released one day.”

“I can’t believe my eyes. They sentenced an 87-year-old arrestee to 11-day solitary confinement for ‘he declared his hopes for release.’ @abdulhamitgut, read out this ruling. Would your conscience agree on it? Unbelievable…” rights defender Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu tweeted, mentioning the Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül, on Monday.

Witnesses questioned before the decision said Karahan would tell other inmates: “I can’t predict what to come in the future. As Said Nursi put it, you will be released if you are not guilty.”

An investigation was launched against Karahan after he was reported to have told his family members during a closed prison visit that other inmates had been asking him to pray to God for their releases.

An advanced-stage prostate cancer patient who has only one kidney left, Karahan is a former disciple of the Ottoman-Kurdish scholar Said Nursi, the teachings of whom later inspired Turkey’s Gülen movement over the past years.

In its decision for the punishment, the Isparta E Type Prison’s disciplinary board said Karahan made propaganda for a criminal group.

Turkey experienced a military coup attempt on July 15 that killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.

The movement denies any involvement. However, the Turkish gov’t initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.

More than 130,000 people have passed through police custody and 60,000 of them were remanded in prison like Karahan.

Karahan made it to the news last week as well after the government tried to transfer him to a prison in Afyonkarahisar, a province located some 100 km from Isparta.

 

Source: Turkey Purge , November 27, 2016

Tags: | |


Related News

Gulen blasts ‘despicable’ 2016 Turkey coup bid, subsequent ‘witch hunt’

US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, the man blamed by Turkey for a failed coup attempt a year ago, on Friday again denied any involvement in what he called a “despicable putsch,” and called on Ankara to end its “witch hunt” of his followers.

Hate Speech is Undermining Turkey’s Fragile Democracy

Many TV viewers could not believe their ears upon hearing the terms “blood sucking vampires, leeches, traitors, spies, worse than Shiites, and assassins” uttered by then Turkish prime minister Erdogan in his political rallies.

Inside Turkey’s Purge

The police officers came to the doctor’s door in Istanbul at 6 a.m. and one of them said, “You are accused of attempting to kill President Erdogan.” The doctor couldn’t help it; he laughed. “Really? I did that?” The police officers smiled, too. “Yes. Also for attempting to destroy Turkey and for being a member of a terrorist organization.”

Public ad budget unfairly allocated to pro-gov’t media

Separate sources have suggested that several public institutions prefer pro-government dailies and TV stations over other media, an initiative that follows Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s statements about “the opposition that cooperates with an international conspiracy seeking to topple the government.”

Operation and crossroads: Hizmet movement falsely accused

The delicate position in which the government now finds itself is real, but it is also a fact that the Hizmet movement is being falsely accused.
Those who support the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and are affiliated with the Hizmet movement do not deserve such an outcome.

Hate speech and respect for the sacred

Islam seeks to protect five major principles that are specified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and adopted in the modern world: religious freedom, the right to observe religious duties and the protection of this right; the right to life and its protection; the right to mental and physical health and its protection; the right to property and its protection; the right to marriage and reproduction and its protection.

Latest News

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

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

Orphanage school principal: Accusing Kimse Yok Mu of terror endangers Kyrgyz orphans

Dialog High School wins top prize

Draft law on state secrets prompts concerns in Turkey amid profiling leaks

Turkey’s permanent state of crisis

Erdoğan’s ‘Reichstag fire’

Germany informs Gülen sympathizers about Turkish Intel surveillance

Turkey blacklists 68 companies including Germany’s Daimler, BASF over Gülen links

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News