“We have been trying for more than a year, but neither my mother nor we have a hope for her freedom. We are very tired. They will make her finish her sentence. Either she or her corpse will come out from there,” Bingol’s daughter told the BBC’s Turkish service on Monday.
Bingol has been in jail since April 2017 for “knowingly and willingly helping a terrorist organization.” She was sentenced to four years and two months behind bars.
The court deemed Bingol’s health issues non-life threatening.
Her lawyer, Gusen Ozbek, told the BBC it is going to be “very hard” for her client to finish the sentence.
She was first jailed in April 2016 for being a “member of a terrorist organization” but was released after two months due to health problems.
Turkish state media Anadolu Agency described her as “terrorist under the codename ‘Sisi’ ” – angering Kurdish politicians and activists.
Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit, a deputy for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) slammed the Turkish government’s mentality for keeping Bingol in jail despite her old age and health problems – branding it the same mentality that described children drowned at sea as “terrorists”.
HDP tweeted Bingol is being punished for merely saying “War is not beneficial at anyone, these deaths should result in peace”.
This case could go to Turkey’s constitutional court.
Thousands of people have been jailed in Turkey accused of supporting terrorism or of spreading terrorist propaganda.
MPs, journalists, civil servants, and activists have been accused of having ties with FETO – the group Ankara holds responsible for the 2016 attempted coup – and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long war with the Turkish state for greater Kurdish political and cultural rights.
Western governments and monitoring groups have criticized Turkey’s worsening human rights record.
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