Chair of Amnesty Turkey, 22 lawyers detained

Taner Kilic, the Chair of Amnesty International Turkey, was detained by police along with 22 other lawyers in Izmir on Tuesday suspected of having links with the Fethullah Gulen movement.

Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:

"The fact that Turkey’s post-coup purge has now dragged the Chair of Amnesty International Turkey into its web is further proof of just how far it has gone and just how arbitrary it has become. Taner Kilic has a long and distinguished record of defending exactly the kind of freedoms that the Turkish authorities are now intent on trampling.”

Amnesty called on the Turkish authorities to immediately release Taner Kilic along with the other 22 lawyers, and drop all charges against them.

Taner Kilic has been Chair of Amnesty International Turkey since 2014.