Court Rules Continuation of Taner Kılıç’s Arrest

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Fourth hearing of the trial of 11 rights defenders, who have been prosecuted due to a meeting about security of rights defenders in Büyükada, was held at İstanbul 35th Heavy Penal Court yesterday (June 21).

The court has ruled continuation of arrest of Amnesty Turkey Chair Taner Kılıç

Of the defendants pending trial without arrest, Günal Kurşun from the Human Rights Agenda Association and Nejat Taştan from the Association of Monitoring for Equal Rights attended the hearing. Kept in İzmir Şakran Prison, Kılıç joined the hearing via Audio and Visual Information System (SEGBİS).

Having served as interpreter at the Büyükada meeting, Ahmet Tunç Tunçten was heard as witness. After Tunçten, “anonymous witness 1” joined the hearing visa SEGBİS as well. Image of “Anonymous Witness 1” was pixelated and his voice was distorted.

The next hearing will be held on November 7, 2018.

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. Taner Kılıç is still behind bars as the only imprisoned defendant of Büyükada trial.

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