Professor Sabri Colak, who was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison over links to Gulen Movement, died at age of 69 in a prison in the eastern province of Van in Turkey.
The professor, who was remanded in the sweeping post-coup crackdown targeting real and perceived sympathizers of Gulen Movement, had heart problems.
Despite numerous attempts by his lawyer and family for his release to get a proper and adequate medical treatment, authorities refused to free him.
He was recently convicted of being a member to a “terrorist organization,” after months of imprisonment pending trial. The Turkish government labeled faith-based Gulen Movement as a terrorist outfit and placed the blame on the movement for the failed July 15 coup attempt in 2016.
More than 150,000 public servants have been either dismissed or suspended from civil service over alleged ties to the movement in the aftermath of the coup. The purge hit hard Turkey’s academia as well. Colak retired after decades of service in Ataturk University Engineering Department in the eastern province of Erzurum.
He will be laid into rest in his hometown of Pasinler, a district of Erzurum.
His death was the latest of a series of deaths in Turkey’s prisons. More than 70 people have died either of torture of lack of medical treatment as authorities frequently ignore medical reports about terminally ill prisoners.
Source:
http://aktifhaber.com/m/yasam/prof-dr-sabri-colak-cezaevinde-hayatini-kaybetti-h121900.html