At the 45th session of the UN Human Rights Council, during the adoption of the UPR (Universal Periodic Review) of Turkey, ISHR (International Service For Human Rights) delivered a statement highlighting the heightened threats and attacks against human rights defenders and called on the Turkish government to ensure that defenders can carry out their legitimate activities without fear of attack, reprisal and judicial harassment.
EXPRESSION INTERRUPTED
Turkey's Constitutional Court on 29 September delayed its planned review of jailed businessperson and civil society figure Osman Kavala's application as the prosecutor conducting the latest investigation against Kavala issued an indictment at the last minute.
The 3rd Penal Chamber of the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice, the court of appeals, has announced its ruling in the lawsuit filed against journalists and writers for having participated in the "Editors-in-Chief on Watch" campaign in solidarity with the Özgür Gündem newspaper, which was closed by a Statutory Decree on October 26, 2016.
Rapporteurs from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have expressed their concern over the situation of lawyers in Turkey after a series of worrying developments – including last week’s decision of the Turkish Court of Cassation to uphold heavy prison sentences against 14 lawyers* from the Progressive Lawyers’ Association involved in “terrorism-related” cases or cases deemed sensitive.
Turkish police, in dawn raids on September 11, 2020, arrested 47 lawyers at their homes in Ankara and searched their offices, Human Rights Watch said today.
The executives of the Precarious Workers' Association have been taken into custody after they distributed leaflets protesting the low daily wages given to agricultural workers and calling on them to halt work.
The Human Rights Association (IHD) issued a written statement today demanding the release of 60 lawyers and lawyers detained in Ankara. The statement is as follows:
Turkish authorities should immediately release human rights defender Osman Kavala, in compliance with the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers’ decision of 3 September 2020, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Human Rights Watch and the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project said today.
The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, in charge of supervising implementation of European Court of Human Rights’s (ECtHR) judgments, urged Turkish authorities to immediately release businessman and rights defender Osman Kavala, imprisoned since 2017.
Lawyer Aytaç Ünsal was released on the 213th day of his hunger strike calling for a fair trial, one week after Ebru Timtik lost her life. Ünsal’s sentence was part of a mass operation against 18 lawyers, who were sentenced to over 150 years in prison overall.