Zabit Kişi, a former teacher who was abducted from Kazakhstan by Turkish intelligence agency MİT, said in a letter to Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu that he did not have access to proper healthcare in prison, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported.
In the letter, which was made public on social media, Kişi said despite a lesion on his liver, he had not been taken to the hospital for months for a follow-up consultation. He claimed that the prison administration made him sign a petition saying it was his decision not to go the hospital.
“I suffer from debilitating pain that does not go away even with the strongest painkillers,” he said.
Lack of proper healthcare in prisons has been repeatedly criticized by human rights activists. Many have argued that health problems were often ignored until it was too late for inmates to be treated.
Kişi, a teacher, moved his family to Kyrgyzstan with the hope of landing a job after he became unemployed in Turkey in December 2015. The private school he had been working for was closed after a government crackdown on schools run by businesspeople close to the Gülen movement.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.
