Turkish police have detained 10 people, including the local director of Amnesty International and other rights activists, on suspicion of membership in a terrorist organisation, Amnesty said yesterday (6 July) in what it called a \u201cgrotesque abuse of power\u201d.<\/p>\n
The detentions came less than a month after a court ordered the arrest of the chairman of Amnesty\u2019s Turkey branch, Taner Kili\u00e7, on the same charge in a crackdown following an attempted military coup in July 2016. Kili\u00e7 remains in jail pending trial.<\/p>\n
Amnesty Turkey Director Idil Eser and the others were removed from a meeting they were holding at a hotel on Buyukada, an island just south of Istanbul, and taken to various police stations across Turkey\u2019s largest city on Wednesday evening (5 July), a lawyer for some of the detainees, Bahri Belen, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Belen said prosecutors had decided on a seven-day detention period, which needs to be approved by a judge. Police were not immediately available for comment, but Belen said an explanation might come on Friday (7 July) when the activists are transferred from the police stations to Istanbul\u2019s police headquarters.<\/p>\n
Amnesty International\u2019s Secretary General Salil Shetty described the accusations against the 10 people, who were attending a workshop on digital security and information management, as absurd.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir spurious detention while attending a routine workshop was bad enough: that they are now being investigated for membership of an armed terrorist organization beggars belief,\u201d Shetty said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Eser and seven other human rights campaigners were detained along with two foreign trainers \u2013 a German and a Swedish national, Amnesty said. In an earlier statement, it also noted that the hotel\u2019s owner had been detained.<\/p>\n
US, EU express concern<\/strong><\/p>\n The United States is \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by the arrests, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cAs with past arrests of prominent human rights defenders, journalists, academics, and activists, we underscore the importance of respecting due process and individual rights, as enshrined in the Turkish Constitution, and consistent with Turkey\u2019s own international commitments,\u201d Nauert said. \u201cMore voices, not fewer, are necessary in challenging times.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the failed putsch a year ago, Turkey has jailed more than 50,000 people pending trial and suspended or dismissed some 150,000, including soldiers, police, teachers and public servants, over alleged links with terrorist groups.<\/p>\n The purge, which has also led to the closure of some 130 media outlets and jailing of 150 journalists, has alarmed Turkey\u2019s Western allies and rights groups, who say President Tayyip Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to muzzle dissent.<\/p>\n EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, in Turkey on Thursday to discuss its performance in European Union accession talks, said he had raised the detentions with Turkish officials.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 (But) I didn\u2019t get a sufficient answer about it. We will continue to follow this,\u201d he told a news conference at Ankara airport.<\/p>\n Hahn also said he had stressed the need for Turkey to respect the rule of law and the right of people to a fair trial.<\/p>\n More than 240 people were killed in last year\u2019s coup attempt, and the government has said the security measures are necessary because of the gravity of the threats facing Turkey.<\/p>\n Amnesty Turkey\u2019s chairman was detained in early June with 22 other lawyers over alleged links to the network of Muslim cleric Fethullah G\u00fclen, whom Ankara blames for the failed coup.<\/p>\n \u201cIf anyone was still in doubt of the endgame of Turkey\u2019s post-coup crackdown, they should not be now,\u201d Amnesty\u2019s Shetty said. \u201cThere is to be no civil society, no criticism and no accountability in Erdo\u011fan\u2019s Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\nBackground<\/h4>\n