Turkey police hold rights activists including Amnesty chief

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

Turkish police have arrested eight leading human rights activists including Amnesty International's Turkey director Idil Eser in Istanbul.

Two trainers - from Germany and Sweden - were also arrested in the raid on a digital security workshop at a hotel in Buyukada.

The police raid was "blatantly without cause", an Amnesty statement said.

The group's whereabouts are unknown. Police have jailed more than 50,000 people since a coup plot a year ago.


Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40517184

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Director of Amnesty International Turkey must be released from incommunicado detention

Responding to the news that Idil Eser, Director of Amnesty International Turkey, was detained on Wednesday along with seven other human rights defenders and two trainers during a digital security and information management workshop in Büyükada, Istanbul, Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:

“We are profoundly disturbed and outraged that some of Turkey’s leading human rights defenders, including the Director of Amnesty International Turkey should have been detained so blatantly without cause.

“Her incommunicado detention and that of the other human rights defenders attending a routine training event, is a grotesque abuse of power and highlights the precarious situation facing human rights activists in the country. Idil Eser and those detained with her, must be immediately and unconditionally released.

“World leaders currently sitting in Hamburg have been remarkably tolerant of Turkey’s human rights meltdown. With President Erdoğan now in their midst, this would be a good time to speak out firmly and call for the release of all human rights defenders currently behind bars.”

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/07/director-of-amnesty-international-turkey-must-be-released-from-incommunicado-detention/

[duhneece]

1. 50,000 I had no idea. Even one is too many, but 50,000 is bigger than the city I live in

Alamogordo, NM had 35,000 folks...
I feel certain the AI folks will be released, but what of the other 50,000?

[riversedge]

2. k for visibility