– In Hamburg will der internationale Generalsekretär von Amnesty International heute die Staats- und Regierungschefs der G20 auf die katastrophale Menschenrechtslage in der Türkei hinweisen. Salil Shetty setzt sich vor Ort für die sofortige Freilassung der inhaftierten Amnesty-Mitarbeiter Idel Eser und Taner Kılıç ein.
BERLIN, 08.07.17 – Begleitet wird Salil Shetty vom Generalsekretär der deutschen Sektion von Amnesty International, Markus N. Beeko. Beide stehen nach Rücksprache für Interviews zur Verfügung…
Lesen Sie im Anschluss die englische Pressemitteilung:
Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Salil Shetty, will attend the G20 summit in Hamburg on Saturday 8 July to lobby world leaders to urge Turkish President Erdoğan to immediately and unconditionally release Amnesty International Turkey staff, Idil Eser and Taner Kılıç, and end the onslaught against civil society in Turkey.
Salil Shetty said:
“This is the first time in our history that Amnesty International has a director and chair from a single country both behind bars. They, along with all other detained human rights defenders, must be released immediately and unconditionally.
If world leaders meeting at the G20 fail to stand up for Turkey’s beleaguered civil society now, there may be nothing left of it by the time the next summit comes around. Nineteen years ago we declared President Erdoğan a prisoner of conscience. Now he is presiding over a massive crackdown on human rights in Turkey.
I will not rest until my colleagues – and those detained alongside them – are freed and have flown out to Hamburg to demand world leaders take action.”
Amnesty International Turkey’s Director, Idil Eser, was detained on 5 July 2017 along with seven other Turkish human rights defenders attending a training workshop outside Istanbul. She is being held under a seven-day detention order and is under investigation for “membership of an armed terrorist organization”.
Amnesty International Turkey’s Chair, Taner Kılıç, was detained on 6 June 2017. He was charged three days later with “membership of the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization” and remanded in pre-trial detention.
Amnesty International believes the charges against both are baseless and is calling for their immediate and unconditional release, along with all those detained alongside Idil Eser.
Background
Idil Eser
At 10am on 5 July, eight human rights defenders, including Amnesty International’s Turkey Director Idil Eser, and two international trainers were detained by police at a hotel in Büyükada, Istanbul, where they were attending a workshop.
All the detainees were denied access to lawyers for more than 28 hours, in contravention of Turkish law, which states a maximum time of 24 hours. The group were also denied the right to contact family members, again in contravention of Turkish law.
The authorities refused to confirm where the human rights defenders were being held until around 3pm on 6 July.
In addition to Idil Eser, the seven human rights defenders detained are: İlknur Üstün, Women’s Coalition; Günal Kurşun, lawyer, Human Rights Agenda Association; Nalan Erkem, lawyer, Citizens’ Assembly; Nejat Taştan, Equal Rights Watch Association; Özlem Dalkıran, Citizens’ Assembly; Şeyhmuz Özbekli, lawyer; and Veli Acu, Human Rights Agenda Association.
For more information, see here: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/07/absurd-terrorism-investigation-launched-into-amnesty-internationals-turkey-director-and-nine-others/
Taner Kılıç
Taner Kiliç, Chair of Amnesty International Turkey, was detained on 6 June. He was charged three days later with “membership of the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization” and remanded in pre-trial detention. The only claim presented by the authorities purportedly linking Taner Kiliç to the Gülen movement is that Bylock, a secure mobile messaging application that the authorities say was used by members of the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization”, was on his phone in August 2014.
No evidence has been presented to substantiate this claim, and Taner Kiliç denies ever having downloaded or used Bylock, or even having heard of it, until its alleged use was widely publicized in connection with recent detentions and prosecutions.
His arrest drew widespread condemnation from governments and official bodies including the US State Department Statement, the European Union and Council of Europe as and prompted diplomatic representations from 16 countries. It also sparked a worldwide campaign led by human rights and civil society organisations demanding #FreeTaner.
For more information, see here: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/06/turkey-imprisonment-of-amnesty-chair-is-a-devastating-injustice/
Aussender: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Sektion der Bundesrepublik Deutschland e. V.
Redaktion: Torben Gösch