Turkish court accepts 'absurd' indictment of rights activists
Amnesty International's Turkey leaders are among 11 human rights defenders indicted on terror charges for holding a workshop on information security and stress management, and the trial is set to begin Oct. 25.
A Turkish court accepted an indictment this week of 11 human rights activists on terrorism charges that carry prison sentences of up to 15 years in a case the United Nations has said could “silence” critics.
The defendants include Taner Kilic, the chairman of Amnesty International in Turkey, and Idil Eser, Amnesty International’s Turkey director, who were implicated after police raided a workshop on coping with stress and information security on an island off the Istanbul coastline in July.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the meeting was an attempt to prolong a failed military coup that sought to overthrow him in July 2016.
“This is clearly an overtly politically motivated prosecution [in which] public statements by officials have been problematic and prejudicial to the investigation,” Andrew Gardner, Amnesty’s researcher on Turkey, told Al-Monitor. “In Turkey, the political leaders and the pro-government media are driving these events, not an independent investigation.”
