28 October 2026
Human rights organization Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST) highlighted the death of 73-year-old ill prisoner Abdullah Tırpan, whose case was closely followed for 20 months by DEM Party Kocaeli MP Dr. Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, after Tırpan lost his life in intensive care following repeated denials of sentence deferral.
In a video report titled “A Child’s Plea Ignored: ‘Don’t Let My Father Die There’ | Abdullah Tırpan Lost His Life Behind Bars,” Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST) documented the judicial and medical ordeal of 73-year-old Abdullah Tırpan, alongside statements by DEM Party Kocaeli MP and human rights defender Dr. Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu and a final plea by Tırpan’s child.
Taken to the Hospital Nearly 40 Times, Denied Release by the Forensic Medicine Institute
Abdullah Tırpan lost his life in the hospital where he was being treated as a prisoner. The 73-year-old was a well-known business owner in Tekirdağ, where for years he worked as a butcher and produced meatballs and cured sausage. Held in Istanbul’s Metris R-Type Prison, Tırpan passed away on October 26, 2026, at Başakşehir Çam and Sakura City Hospital.
After July 15, he was investigated for allegedly being a volunteer of the Hizmet movement. He was taken into police custody on August 16, 2016, and unlawfully arrested. The case against him cited a Bank Asya checking account, newspaper subscriptions, his children’s school enrollments, and charitable donations. He was released after spending 19 months in prison and was later sentenced to 7 years and 6 months. When the Court of Cassation upheld the sentence, he was sent back to prison in February 2025.
He was diabetic, suffered from high blood pressure and nerve damage, and used a wheelchair. His health continuously deteriorated in prison, and he was taken to the hospital nearly 40 times. His family applied again and again for his release and requested a postponement of his sentence. Despite all of the family’s requests and his severe illness, Tırpan was not released, as the Forensic Medicine Institute issued a report stating he was fit to remain in prison. An open wound on his foot turned gangrenous and his leg was amputated, but he never recovered. While awaiting a second surgery, he was moved to intensive care. Once again, a sick man who should never have been in prison was knowingly driven to his death through the deliberate negligence of the authorities.
Gergerlioğlu: “The Doctors Say There Was So Much Neglect That Even Where We Cut Was Not Enough”
Speaking on the case he had been tracking for 20 months, MP and physician Dr. Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu condemned the Ministry of Justice and the Forensic Medicine Institute in the video:
“I say shame on you, Ministry of Justice, General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses! Shame on those who govern this country, on those who keep half a million people in prisons in this country! In this country, people, prisoners have neither safety of life, nor legal security, nor health security. Look, I recorded a video yesterday and told you this: I have been following this for 20 months. Sick, elderly prisoner Abdullah Tırpan was in Tekirdağ Prison. The man applied for a deferral of his sentence four or five times. Mercilessly, the Forensic Medicine Institute did not give him a deferral of sentence. What happened in the end? He went to Metris R-Type Prison—a diabetic, a hypertension patient, a sick elderly person. Do you know what happened in the end? What was bound to happen happened: it was a diabetic foot, and his foot was amputated today. But do you know what happened after the surgery? Let me announce something even worse to the public: the doctors say there was so much neglect, it was so neglected that ‘even where we cut was not enough, we will cut from higher up, we will operate on him again.’ Shame on you! Are you not human beings at all? I say shame on you from here, first to the Ministry of Justice!”
A Child’s Final Plea: “Please Let a Deferral of Sentence Finally Be Granted for My Father, Otherwise He Will Die There”
The report concluded with the emotional appeal made by Abdullah Tırpan’s child prior to his death:
“I call out to all officials, I call out to everyone who has a conscience: please let a deferral of sentence finally be granted for my father, otherwise he will die there. I don’t want him to die there. Please, for my father, please…”
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