World Human Rights Defenders – Berlin | Press Statement | 26 October 2026
Abdullah Tırpan, 73, died around midday on 26 October 2026 in the intensive care unit of Başakşehir Çam and Sakura City Hospital in Istanbul. He was a gravely ill prisoner: his leg had been amputated three days before his death, and he had lost the ability to speak months earlier. His family, members of parliament and human rights organisations had warned for months that he could die in prison. Not one of those warnings was heeded.
We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of Abdullah Tırpan, and we share their grief.
Who was he?
Abdullah Tırpan was born in 1953. He spent most of his life working in Tekirdağ, where he ran a köfte and sucuk business and a butcher’s shop with his family. In the mass prosecutions that followed the 2016 coup attempt, he was detained on 16 August 2016 and held in pre-trial detention for 19 months. The Tekirdağ 3rd High Criminal Court sentenced him to 7 years and 6 months in prison.
The grounds for his conviction were: an account at Bank Asya, newspaper and magazine subscriptions, sending his children to schools that were operating legally at the time, and donations to charities. None of these acts was a crime when it was committed. In his defence, Tırpan stated that he had never been a member of any illegal organisation. After the Court of Cassation upheld the verdict, he was returned to prison in February 2025. Exactly twenty months later, he died in the custody of the state.
The Chain of Decisions That Led to His Death
Abdullah Tırpan’s death was not a sudden misfortune. It was the outcome of a process that could have been stopped again and again.
1. Imprisonment despite grave illness: A 72-year-old man with advanced diabetes, hypertension, nerve damage, impaired vision and non-healing wounds on his feet was sent back to prison in February 2025.
2. Forty trips to hospital, forty returns to his cell: During his imprisonment he was taken to hospital or the prison infirmary around forty times, and each time he was sent back to his ward. On 3 November 2025 he lost consciousness in his cell. He was taken to the emergency room and returned to prison once again. When he was taken back for breathlessness and constant vomiting, he was not even kept for observation.
3. The Forensic Medicine Institution’s “fit to stay” reports: On 17 December 2025 the Forensic Medicine Institution (Adli Tıp Kurumu) ruled that Tırpan could remain in prison. In May and June 2026, hospital health boards in Tekirdağ reached the same conclusion. These reports listed his serious illnesses one by one, yet saw no need to defer his sentence. As the human rights group Mazlum-Der pointed out, declaring a man who depends on others for basic care “fit to remain in prison” defies reason and conscience.
4. A delayed scan: When he began losing his ability to speak in February 2026, a brain MRI was ordered. It was carried out only about four months later, revealing severe narrowing of the blood vessels in his brain and a risk of stroke.
5. Every application rejected: For twenty months, his family repeatedly and publicly requested that his sentence be deferred. Human rights organisations appealed to the Ministry of Justice, and members of parliament raised his case in the Grand National Assembly. In November 2025, MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu asked in parliament: “If he dies in prison tomorrow, who will be responsible?” That question has never been answered.
6. The final days: During a visit in early October 2026, Tırpan was in a wheelchair with advanced gangrene in his left leg. He was admitted to hospital on 20 October, and in the early hours of 22 October his left leg was amputated below the knee. By then the infection had already spread above the amputation site. According to Gergerlioğlu, a request for a family member to be with him before the operation was refused. On 25 October he was moved to intensive care and intubated. His family learned this not from the authorities, but from e-Nabız, the state’s own patient portal. He died the next day.
We Condemn
We hold responsible, and condemn, those behind Abdullah Tırpan’s death: the judicial and prison authorities who kept a gravely ill elderly man behind bars; the Forensic Medicine Institution and hospital boards that issued reports detached from reality; the health system that delayed essential examinations for months; and the Ministry of Justice, which remained silent despite every warning.
This death is not an isolated case. According to the chair of the parliamentary sub-commission on prisons, 1,001 prisoners died in Turkish prisons in 2025. The Human Rights Association (İHD) identified at least 1,412 ill prisoners as of April 2025, 230 of whom are unable to sustain their lives on their own.
Our Demands
- A prompt, independent, effective and transparent investigation must be opened into the death of Abdullah Tırpan.
- The date, reasoning and medical basis of the Forensic Medicine Institution’s report must be made public.
- Criminal and disciplinary proceedings must be initiated against the officials responsible.
- The situation of all gravely ill prisoners in Turkey must be urgently reassessed, and the legal provisions on deferral of sentences must be applied in line with their purpose.
- The independence of the Forensic Medicine Institution from political influence must be guaranteed.
We Will Not Let This Go
As World Human Rights Defenders – Berlin, we declare that, as with the other cases of neglect and rights violations we have brought to public attention, we will follow the case of Abdullah Tırpan until justice is done. We will continue to bring it before the public in Germany and across Europe, before the relevant institutions, and before international human rights mechanisms.
We remember Abdullah Tırpan with sorrow and respect.
Legal Provisions Violated
International human rights instruments
- European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Art. 2 (Right to life): The state’s duty to protect the lives of persons in its custody and to provide necessary medical care; the duty to effectively investigate deaths in custody.
- ECHR Art. 3 (Prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment): Continued detention of a prisoner whose health was incompatible with prison conditions, and failure to provide adequate treatment. See Gülay Çetin v. Turkey (2013).
- ECHR Art. 7 (No punishment without law): Conviction based on acts that were lawful when committed. See ECtHR Grand Chamber, Yüksel Yalçınkaya v. Türkiye (2023).
- ECHR Art. 8 (Right to respect for family life): Failure to inform the family of the surgery and intensive care; refusal to allow a family member to be present before surgery.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Arts. 6, 7 and 10: Right to life, prohibition of cruel and inhuman treatment, and humane treatment of persons deprived of their liberty.
- UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules), Rules 24–27: Health care for prisoners equivalent to that available in the community, and timely access to specialist treatment in urgent cases.
- European Prison Rules (Rec(2006)2), Rules 39–40: The state’s responsibility for safeguarding the health of prisoners.
Legislation of the Republic of Türkiye
- Constitution, Art. 17: Right to life and to physical and mental integrity; prohibition of treatment incompatible with human dignity.
- Constitution, Art. 38: Legality of crimes and punishments.
- Constitution, Art. 56: The state’s duty to ensure everyone can live in physical and mental health.
- Constitution, Art. 90 (final paragraph): Precedence of international agreements on fundamental rights over domestic law.
- Law No. 5275 on the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures, Art. 2: Prohibition of cruel, inhuman, degrading and humiliating treatment in the execution of sentences.
- Law No. 5275, Art. 16(3) and 16(6): Deferral of a sentence where imprisonment poses a definite danger to the prisoner’s life, or where serious illness prevents the prisoner from sustaining life alone in prison conditions.
- Turkish Penal Code, Arts. 83, 85 and 257: The need to investigate those responsible for homicide by omission, negligent homicide and abuse of office.
World Human Rights Defenders – Berlin
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