Turkey holds six rights activists on charges of aiding terror group

Idil Eser, Amnesty's Turkey director, was detained on 5 July along with seven other activists and two foreign trainers during a digital security and information management workshop on Buyukada, an island south of Istanbul. "Six were remanded in custody and four released on judicial control," Amnesty International's Turkey researcher, Andrew Gardner, told Agence France-Presse.

Prosecutors accuse them of "committing a crime in the name of a terror organisation without being a member", he said. "Turkish prosecutors have had 12 days to establish the obvious: that these 10 activists are innocent. The decision to proceed shows that truth and justice have become total strangers in Turkey," said Amnesty International's secretary general, Salil Shetty.

"This is not a legitimate investigation, this is a politically motivated witch-hunt that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey."

Their detention sparked international alarm and amplified fears of declining freedom of expression under Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The ruling came a day after the activists, who have not yet been tried or formally charged, gave statements to prosecutors for the first time since their detention.

Eight of those detained were Turkish rights activists, including Ilknur Ustün of the Women's Coalition and Veli Acu of the Human Rights Agenda Association. Four have now been released, Gardner said. Two foreigners – a German and a Swedish national who were leading the digital information workshop – remain in pre-trial detention. AGENCIES