Mary Lowler, United Nations Special Rapporteur On The Situation of Human Rights Defenders published a joint communication addressed to the Turkish Government on the Büyükada trial:
Four of the eleven human rights defenders on trial were convicted and sentenced on 3 July 2020.
On 30 June 2020, along with several other Special Rapporteurs and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, I sent a communication to the Turkish Government regarding the arrest, detention and trial of eleven human rights defenders who had been arrested in 2017. This communication can now be made public.
The human rights defenders concerned were:
- Mr Taner Kiliç
- Ms Özlem Dalkiran
- Ms Ìdil Eser
- Ms Nalan Erkem
- Ms Ìlknur Ülstün
- Mr Günal Kurşun
- Mr Veli Acu
- Mr Şeyhmus Özbekli
- Mr Ali Gharavi
- Mr Peter Steudtner
- Mr Nejat Taştan
According to the information received:
All of the the above-mentioned human rights defenders, excluding Taner Kiliç, were arrested and detained while attending a workshop on digital security on the island of Büyükada on 5 July 2017.
All 10 defenders were detained for 12 days before appearing for a judge who ordered the release on bail of Nejat Taştan and Şeyhmus Özbekli, with the other defenders being ordered into pre-trial detention.
All of the human rights defenders were charged under Article 220/6 of the Turkish Penal Code: “[a]ny person who commits an offence on behalf of an organisation, although he is not a member of that organisation, shall also be sentenced for the offence of being a member of that organisation.”
Taner Kiliç, the former chair of Amnesty International Turkey, had been arrested previously, on 6 June 2017 and charged with “membership of a terrorist organisation” under article 314/2 of the Turkish Penal Code. The charges were based on the allegation that he had downloaded and used the secure messaging app ByLock.
On 4 October 2017, Mr Kiliç's case was merged with that of the other human rights defenders. He too was held in pre-trial detention.
On 25 October 2017, the eight defenders who remained in detention following the Büyükada arrests were released on bail.
On 15 August 2018, Mr Kiliç was released, subject to administrative controls and a travel ban. He had spent 14 months in detention.
On 19 February 2020, the prosecutor in the case requested the conviction of Mr Kiliç for “membership of a terrorist organisation” and the convictions of Ìdil Eser, Günal Kurşun, Nejat Taştan, Veli Acu and Özlem Dalkiran for “committing a crime on behalf of a terrorist organisation”.
On 3 July 2020, four of the human rights defenders were convicted at the Istanbul Assize Court no. 35. The convictions were as follows:
Taner Kiliç was convicted of membership of a terrorist organisation and sentenced to 6 years and 3 months in prison.
Ìdil Eser, Günal Kurşun and Özlem Dalkiran were convicted of aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation and sentenced to 25 months in prison.
The seven other human rights defenders were acquitted. On 6 July 2020, the prosecutor reportedly informed the court that they intended to appeal against the acquittal of Nejat Taştan and Veli Acu.
The four defenders convicted are currently out of prison and are appealing the decisions against them.
The complete communication sent on 30 June is available here: https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25400
In the communication, it was stated that, given the urgency of the allegations in the information received, and the reliability of the information, we may have expressed our concerns publicly through a press release following the communication.
I issued this press release on 2 June 2020. It was endorsed by the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and the protection of human rights while countering terrorism. It can be accessed here: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26030&LangID=E
On 24 July 2020, following the convictions, a reply by the Turkish Government to the communication was received. It can be accessed here: https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=35439
