06 July, 2017
Eight leading human rights activist are arrested in Turkey by the Turkish police.
He said they must be "immediately and unconditionally released".
Belen said prosecutors had decided on a seven-day detention period, which needs to be approved by a judge.
The police action "is a grotesque abuse of power and highlights the precarious situation facing human rights activists in the country", said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's Secretary General. "Their spurious detention while attending a routine workshop was bad enough: that they are now being investigated for membership of an "armed terrorist organization" beggars belief".
"Ms Eser and, indeed all those detained, must be granted access to their lawyers and full due process, including the presumption of innocence".
Turkey has launched a massive crackdown since last year's failed coup attempt, arresting some 50,000 people and dismissing more than 100,000 from government jobs.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament has advised the European Union to formally suspend accession talks with Turkey amid growing concerns over human rights and rule of law.
Turkey remains under a state of emergency imposed in the wake of the July 15, 2016 failed coup aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
". (But) I didn't get a sufficient answer about it".
On June 6, Chair of Amnesty in Turkey, Taner Kilic, along with 22 other lawyers were also detained in Izmir as part of an ongoing crackdown against those suspected of having links to the self-exiled Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen who is blamed by Turkey for the failed coup a year ago.
Amnesty International's Turkey director and a number of other activists are being detained following a raid on their meeting near Istanbul on Wednesday.
"If anyone was still in doubt of the endgame of Turkey's post-coup crackdown, they should not be now". "There is to be no civil society, no criticism and no accountability in Erdogan's Turkey".
