3 Rights Advocates Transferred to Silivri Prison

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Being arrested after detained at Büyükada and then sent to Bakırköy Prison, rights advocates İdil Eser, Özlem Dalkıran and Nalan Erkem were sent to Silivri Prison today.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) İstanbul MP Selina Doğan found out in the prison where she went to visit Eser, Dalkıran and Erkem that the three rights advocates would be transferred to Silivri Prison.

Speaking to bianet, Doğan said:

“We got permission from the Ministry of Justice for the visit on Friday. They granted us the permission today but we were told that we should visit them until 1 p.m. since they would be transferred after that time”.

 “Unfortunately, they learned that they would be transferred to the Silivri through my visit. They were surprised. They expressed that this situation will cause problems in terms of meeting with their families since transportation to Silivri is hard. They told me that this was a part of the intimidation practices.

“The warden told us that the transfer would take place because of lack of physical space and not only them but there are other prisoners to be transferred”.

What happened?

Nalan Erkem and Özlem Dalkıran (Helsinki Citizens Assembly), İlknur Üstün (Women's Coalition), İdil Eser (Human Rights Watch Director to Turkey) and Veli Acu (Human Rights Agenda Association), Günal Kurşun (Human Rights Agenda Association), Nejat Taştan (Association for Monitoring Equal Rights), Şeyhmuz Özbekli (Rights Initiative), Ali Garawi (human rights trainer), and Peter Steudtner (German citizen human rights trainer) were taken into custody during a training workshop in Büyükada, one of the Prince Islands in İstanbul.

On July 11, an additional seven days of detention was issued for the rights advocates.

On July 18, Eser, Dalkıran, Kurşun, Acu, Garawi and Steudtner were arrested. Erkem, Üstün, Taştan and Özbekli were released on probation and international travel ban was imposed on them. (ÇT/TK)