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High Court judge who was being kept under arrest at hospital has died

Mustafa Erdogan, a member of Court of Cassation, who has been arrested when he came to hospital for a brain surgery has today died. Erdogan was put to sleep 9 days ago since he lost his consciusness and was released only 3 days ago. The reason for his arrest is not known since there’s still no indictment about him.

He has been kept in a holding cell at a private hospital since Dec. 30, 2016. According to his daughter Buket Erdoğan, the top judge was denied right to “trial without arrest” although he was paralyzed after a surgery on his brain.

“I am a second-grade law faculty student at Ankara University. … I want to tell you what we have been through since the July 15, 2016 [coup attempt],” she started her letter published on Justice Held Hostage, an online platform.

Buket Erdoğan said police raided their home on July 16 and an arrest warrant was issued for her father a day after while all their properties were confiscated by the government.

She said her father refused to turn himself in to the police in the face of rights violations proliferated under post-coup emergency rules. To top it off, she added, her father was suffering from a tumor on his brain.

“[Doctors] told that he must undergo a surgery right away. … Police came by immediately after he was hospitalized for surgery. While all I was thinking was my father’s health, police officers were discussing ways to arrest and take him to the police station in front of the intensive care unit,” Buket Erdoğan narrated.

“Left side of his body got paralyzed after the surgery. …On Dec. 30, 2016, my father was transferred to a holding cell at Akdeniz University’s Medical Faculty. My father was not even aware of his arrest. …Police are always on watch keeping in mind the possibility of him escaping. …Father’s holding cell at the hospital is closed with double-layer bars. I always wonder how doctors would be able to serve immediate treatment with those bars in case of an emergency. …Now he often suffers from memory loss and sometimes hallucinate things.”

Buket Erdoğan said her father was released for a day on Feb. 2 only before the prosecutor in charge objected to the decision which resulted in his arrest again.

“Since he has become a bedridden patient after the surgery, doctors asked for permission to give him an air mattress so that he gets no harm to his back during long hours of lying,” Buket Erdoğan added.

“[However], it was considered as a technological device and was not let into,” she elaborated.

“Doctors say he is able to live for 2 years more at best. Is it fair that he will be breathing his last under such circumstances?” she said.

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