When the Turkish judiciary finally released Ergin Saygun on health grounds this month, he was already on the operating table with a life-threatening heart infection. Several months earlier, the retired general had shouted at the judge, “You won’t manage to kill me!” as the court rejected repeated requests for his conditional release, ignoring medical reports that diagnosed him with 15 serious conditions and warned against the risk of a lethal cardiac infection.
The dramatic case of the former deputy chief of the Turkish general staff, convicted in a plot to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government, has raised questions about whether denial of proper health care has become a form of additional punishment — and even political revenge — in Turkey’s notorious judicial system.