Call for release of activists

Human rights defenders arrested in Turkey

Ten human rights defenders were arrested in Istanbul last Wednesday, July 5, while taking part in a training meeting on digital privacy. The group was initially held for 24 hours without access to lawyers or permission to contact their relatives. Afterwards, their detention was extended and bail was denied.

Among the detainees is the director of Amnesty International in Turkey, Idil Eser, as well as another seven Turkish activists and two instructors – one from Sweden and the other from Germany. Civil society organizations from around the world have called on the Turkish government to immediately release the human rights defenders, who have been charged with “participation in an armed terrorist group”.

According to the government, the activists are associated with the Hizmet Movement, led by the Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, who Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for the attempted coup in July 2016. The failed coup marked the beginning of an escalation in repression and rights violations by the Erdogan government, including the arrest of 50,000 people and the suspension of 150,000 public employees.

According to the organizations decrying the repression by the Turkish government, the arrests constitute a violation of the rights to freedom of expression and association and infringe on the rights guaranteed by the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

Conectas and another nine organizations, including the “Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo” and CELS (Center for Legal and Social Studies), submitted a letter to the Turkish government expressing their condemnation of the arrests and calling for the release of the activists.

• Click here to read the letter in full.