Release Verdict for Amnesty Turkey Chair Kılıç

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Court has ruled release of Amnesty Turkey Executive Board Chair lawyer Taner Kılıç.

Kılıç was arrested in June 2017 and his file was combined with Büyükada case in October 2017.

Reviewing the objection against the arrest, İstanbul 35th Heavy Penal court ruled for release of Kılıç today (August 15).

Saying that they headed to prison for Kılıç’s release, Kılıç’s lawyer Murat Dinçer told bianet:

“We’ve been regularly giving petitions for his release for over a year. This time release verdict was issued in the monthly routine review by the higher court. His arrest was political, the release complies with law”.

What happened?

Arrested with 22 other lawyers in June 2017, file of Amnesty Turkey Chair Taner Kılıç was combined with Büyükada case. Release order was issued for Kılıç on January 31, 2018 but a warrant was issued before he was released from prison.

As part of the prosecution,  Idil Eser (Amnesty International Turkey Director), Özlem Dalkıran (Citizens' Assembly / formerly called Helsinki Citizens Association), Günal Kurşun (Human Rights Agenda Association), Veli Acu (Human Rights Agenda Association),  Ali Garawi (citizen of Sweden / human rights trainer)  Peter Steudtner (citizen of Germany / human rights trainer), lknur Üstün (Women's Coalition) and Nalan Erkem (Citizens' Assembly / formerly called Helsinki Citizens Association), Nejat Taştan (Association of Monitoring for Equal Rights) and Seyhmuz Özbekli (Rights Initiative Representative) have been tried on charges of "committing crimes on behalf of the terrorist organization without being a member" (Article 220/6 of Turkish Penal Code/TCK ) and "being a member of an armed terrorist organization" (Articles 314/2 and 314/3 of TCK. (ÇT/TK)