Antalya police on Tuesday detained Fatmana Karakuzu, the mother of Ayşe Özdoğan, an imprisoned woman with stage 4 maxillary sinus cancer, for protesting her daughter’s imprisonment over trumped-up charges of “participation in a terrorist organization.”
Karakuzu was detained in front of the Antalya courthouse. She was reportedly taken to a police station for interrogation.
According to a later tweet posted by Melek Çetinkaya, the purge-victim woman was released after almost five hours in police custody.
Ayşe Özdoğan was sent to prison early in October on charges of membership to the Gulen group, which the government accuses of masterminding a coup attempt.
The group denies any involvement.
Ayşe was sent to prison after a regional appeals court in Turkey has upheld a prison sentence of nine years, five months handed down to her.
Among the accusations are claims that she deposited 300 Turkish Liras (35 USD) into a Bank Asya account, as well as working at a Gulen-affiliated student dormitory.
The Gulen group is accused by the government of masterminding a coup attempt on July 15, 2016. The group denies any involvement.
The purge-victim woman, Ayşe, was initially put in pre-trial detention in April 2019 for working at a now-closed Gulen-affiliated student dormitory. After spending a week under police custody, she was released on bail. She was eventually sentenced to nine years and five months in prison in December 2019.
The same court also sentenced her husband, İlker Özdoğan to 13 years and five months in prison over similar charges.