Abdullah Tırpan, 73, ran a meatball and sausage business and a butcher’s shop in Tekirdağ for decades. He was detained on 16 August 2016 and sentenced by the Tekirdağ 3rd Assize Court to seven years and six months. The grounds included depositing money at Bank Asya, subscribing to publications, sending his children to schools that were later closed, and making charitable donations. After the Court of Cassation upheld the sentence, he returned to prison in February 2025.

In his defence statement of 6 March 2018 he said he had run a family firm, had at times appeared among the top ten taxpayers in his area, and had no criminal record.

He has advanced diabetes and hypertension, nerve damage with loss of sensation in his hands and feet, rheumatic joint disease and a history of pneumonia. His family says he cannot wash, dress or use the toilet without help from other prisoners.

On 17 December 2025, the 11th Specialist Board of the Forensic Medicine Institute reported unanimously that he did not fall within Articles 16/2 or 16/6 of Law No. 5275 on the execution of sentences, that he could maintain his life alone, and that execution of his sentence could continue in prison conditions provided his diet, treatment and periodic outpatient checks were arranged.

On 11 February 2026 he lost the ability to speak while in his ward. An ambulance attended. His blood sugar and blood pressure were recorded as normal and he was not taken to hospital. He was referred to neurology the following day, examined on 17 February, and a brain MRI was ordered.

The MRI was performed on 8 June 2026, about four months later. It showed 75% blockage of an artery and a risk of stroke.

During the intervening period, ward-mates filled a five-litre bottle with hot water to warm him. Because of diabetic neuropathy he did not feel the burning. Both feet were burned from heel to toes, and the skin beneath was removed in plastic surgery. He was operated on again in July for wounds to his feet.

On 10 June 2026, Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a DEM Party MP for Kocaeli, raised the case in parliament, saying that Tırpan could suffer a stroke or be taken to intensive care at any moment.

On 9 September 2026 Tırpan underwent angiography and spent a night in intensive care. He was taken to Metris prison as a guest prisoner the following day and returned to Tekirdağ the day after that.

On 17 September 2026 the Forensic Medicine Institute reported that he may be held in an R-type rehabilitation prison. His transfer to Metris R-type awaits approval from the Justice Ministry.

His daughter, Refia Tırpan, said her father had grown much weaker during the transfers between hospital and prison, and that the family wants him released.

The European Court of Human Rights held in Yalçınkaya (2023) and Yasak (2026) that the categories of conduct on which his conviction rests cannot, without an individual assessment of intent, establish membership of an armed organisation.

The institute that assessed him has now twice concluded that he may remain in custody, most recently by moving him to a different category of prison rather than out of one.