Ceyhan Ağırdaş, Ali Ağırdaş's sister, speaking with the Anatolia news agency over the weekend, said a death sentence had recently been handed down by the court.
“My brother had been going about his business,” Ceyhan Ağırdaş said, noting that Ali Ağırdaş had gone to Saudi Arabia to work as a waiter. “I don't believe at all that he is involved in the drug trade. I want him to be released at once. We expect support from President Gül and Prime Minister Erdoğan,” she said, recalling that a Turkish barber, Sabri Boğday, who was sentenced to death by a Jeddah court on charges of blasphemy, was able to return to Turkey after being granted a royal pardon.
Boğday, who worked in Jeddah for 11 years as a barber, was convicted in 2007 of insulting God during an argument with a Saudi client and an Egyptian neighbor and was sentenced to death. In January, he was given a royal pardon. Both President Gül and Prime Minister Erdoğan discussed the issue with Saudi King Abdullah and requested that he grant a pardon.
