Ali Osman Karahan, an 86-year-old Turkish man with walking and speaking difficulties, has been kept in an Isparta prison for almost 12 months over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, which Turkish authorities accuse of being behind a failed coup attempt in July of last year.
Video footage, posted by Karahan’s grandson on Twitter, shows the moment a plainclothes policeman walks Karahan into a building where he was to testify before a judge.
Karahan is accused of being a member of the Gülen movement.
According to the grandson’s tweets, Karahan was arrested by an Isparta court after the failed coup on July 15, 2016 and was sent to a prison in Isparta’s Yalvaç district.
Karahan has advanced-stage prostate cancer and has only one kidney.
The military coup attempt on July 15 killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
The movement denies any involvement. However, the Turkish government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
According to a report by the state-run Anadolu news agency on May 28, 154,694 individuals have been detained and 50,136 have been jailed due to alleged Gülen links since the failed coup attempt. (TurkeyPurge)