Zehra Elbir, a former court clerk who was earlier dismissed from her job in the government’s post-coup purge of state institutions, was detained only 40 days after giving birth to her second child, during a visit to her husband in prison.
Eril Elbir, Zehra’s husband and a former police officer who was also fired over alleged links to the Gülen movement, has been under arrest for nine months.
In yet another example of disproportionate punishment imposed on people targeted in Turkey’s post-coup witch-hunt, Elbir was taken into police custody along with her 40-day-old baby when she arrived at Ankara’s Sincan Prison to see her husband on June 16.
This is is not the first time that Zehra has been detained, the media said, adding that she had previously been taken into custody when police raided a hospital and apprehended her while she was accompanying the family’s other child.
Dozens of human tragedies in Turkey have been reported, part of a post-coup witch-hunt against the Gülen movement, which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accuse of being behind the failed coup.
The movement denies any involvement.
According to a report by the state-run Anadolu news agency on May 28, 154,694 individuals have been detained and 50,136 have been jailed due to alleged Gülen links since the failed coup attempt. (Turkey Purge)
