Turkish-Armenian linguist and writer Sevan Nişanyan, who escaped from prison last month, has said his money at a bank was seized by the government.

Jailed on nine different charges including illegal construction in 2014, Nişanyan escaped from Foça prison in Turkey’s western province of İzmir on July 14, and said he applied to for political asylum in Greece on July 26. The writer was sentenced to a total of 17 years in a number of cases, Agos newspaper earlier said.

“I had TL 12,000 [$3,400] for dark days. I have found out that Turkey has seized it as they couldn’t find anything else. This is not a state, this is a group of gangsters,” Nişanyan wrote on his Facebook account.

Turkey earlier seized properties belonging to several journalists and businessmen who were targeted as part of Turkish government’s post-coup crackdown.