EU Spokesperson calls on Turkey to 'clarify charges against detained rights defenders'
On Friday (July 7), the office of the spokesperson of European Union released a statement ‘calling on the Turkish authorities to clarify the charges’ over which 10 human rights defenders in Turkey have recently been detained in Büyükada (the biggest of the Princes’ Islands) of İstanbul.
Director of Amnesty International Turkey, İdil Eser, and 9 other human rights advocates had gathering at a hotel in Büyükada last week for a training seminar. On Wednesday (July 5), the advocates were taken into custody by police that raided the hotel.
While the lawyers and the families of the detained professionals were not informed of the detention throughout the first 12 hours, the authorities also did not share any information regarding the charges against them for the next couple of days.
In a statement delivered on Saturday (July 8) during a press conference held after the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, Turkey’s President Erdoğan claimed the human rights defenders ‘had met at the hotel to hold a secret meeting to plot something that would have been the continuation of the July 15 coup attempt.’