Turkish prison authorities prevent Gergerlioğlu from posing with victory sign

Duvar English

Turkish prison authorities have prevented former Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu from posing for a photo with a victory sign, his son said on Twitter. 

Salih Gergerlioğlu said that his father wanted to send two pictures out, in one of which he wanted to pose with a paper with "My soul can't be imprisoned" written on and the other doing the victory sign. 

"I visited my father in prison yesterday. We have an announcement," Gergerlioğlu said in a tweet on April 27, conveying his father's message.

"He said, 'If I'm not allowed to pose for pictures, then you can do so instead of me,'" Gergerlioğlu noted. 

Social media users started to share pictures of themselves holding the same writing and doing the victory sign upon Gergerlioğlu's call. 

HDP deputies were among those who shared pictures of themselves. 

"Those who think that they can silence him through imprisonment are wrong," HDP deputy Züheyla Gülüm said. 

"We are his voice outside." 

Former HDP lawmaker Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, also a human rights defender, was sentenced to prison in 2018 for "making terrorism propaganda" by sharing a news article on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Twitter back in 2016.

The politically motivated charges led to him being stripped of his parliamentary status on March 17 despite the lack of a final ruling from the Constitutional Court.

He was forcefully detained on April 2, with police officers battering the politician at his home. He was then hospitalized due to high blood pressure under police custody and put in intensive care, before police officers hastily took him out and transferred him to prison on April 3.

His son has been sharing his father's condition ever since.