Amnesty: Tell Turkey: free Amnesty’s Idil Eser and other rights defenders

Police have detained the second Amnesty International Turkey leader within the space of a month.

On the morning of the 5th July, police arrested eight human rights activists, including Idil Eser, and two trainers who were attending a workshop in Istanbul.

For over 24 hours, they weren’t allowed to contact their families or see a lawyer – and no one even knew where they were.

Idil and the others were doing nothing wrong. They are now being investigated on suspicion of “membership of an armed terrorist organisation”: a ridiculous and baseless accusation.

This kind of attack on Human Rights Defenders is becoming more frequent. The Turkish government is abusing its power, deliberately making the country a dangerous place for people who speak out for human rights.

The Turkish authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all ten detainees.

The ten human rights defenders detained are İdil Eser (Amnesty International), İlknur Üstün. (Women’s Coalition), Günal Kurşun (Human Rights Agenda Association), Nalan Erkem,(Citizens Assembly), Nejat Taştan (Equal Rights Watch Association), Özlem Dalkıran (Citizens’ Assembly), Şeyhmuz Özbekli (lawyer), Veli Acu (Human Rights Agenda Association) Ali Gharavi (IT strategy consultant), Peter Steudtner (non-violence and wellbeing trainer).