Amnesty International has welcomed the acquittal of Taner Kılıç, a prominent Turkish human rights defender and former chair of Amnesty International’s Turkey branch, after an eight-year legal ordeal but lamented a new crackdown on rights activists and figures from the political opposition in the country.
Kılıç was among the 11 human rights defenders who were accused of terrorism for attending a series of meetings on İstanbul’s Büyükada island in 2017. They were targeted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who alleged that the meetings’ agenda was to plan the continuation of a coup attempt against his government on July 15, 2016.
In July 2020 the a high criminal court in İstanbul sentenced Kılıç to more than six years in prison on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” and convicted three other rights activists for knowingly and willingly supporting such an organization, sentencing each to 25 months in prison while acquitting the remaining seven human rights defenders.
In November 2022 the Supreme Court of Appeals ruled to overturn the conviction of Kılıç on the grounds that the investigation was “incomplete.” The lower court agreed with the top appeals court’s ruling in June 2023, but the prosecutor appealed the decision, insisting that Kılıç’s conviction should stand.
All 11 defendants were acquitted of the charges when the Supreme Court of Appeals earlier this month rejected the prosecutor’s appeal and upheld Kılıç’s acquittal.
In a statement on Thursday Amnesty said the case of Kılıç, who has finally been acquitted after a judicial process that has lasted almost eight years, is a stark example of the Turkish authorities’ politically motivated attempts to criminalize human rights defenders.
Yet, the rights organization said the end of the legal ordeal for Kılıç comes amid a new wave of detentions in which rights defenders, journalists, political activists and others have been targeted.
“Today, as we mark the end of Taner’s agonizing ordeal, our feelings are bittersweet. The cruelty inflicted on Taner — the years stolen from him and his family — can never be forgotten. His tenacity and resilience, coupled with our determination to undo this injustice, demonstrates that when we come together, we can move mountains,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general who spoke with Kılıç by video call on Thursday.
“For me this nightmare that has gone on for almost eight years is finally over. My imprisonment for more than a year caused great trauma to my family. This unfair trial was like a sword of Damocles hanging not just over me but over the head of the entire human rights community in Türkiye. While it was for the prosecution to prove my guilt, this case went on for years despite my repeatedly proving my innocence,” said Kılıç who was held in pretrial detention for over 14 months in 2017-2018.
Amnesty said the end of the legal ordeal for Kılıç comes amid a new wave of detentions in which rights defenders, journalists, political activists and others have been targeted.
The acquittal comes amid a crackdown in which more than 1,600 people have reportedly been investigated for their alleged links to the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), an umbrella organization for left-wing and pro-Kurdish groups.
Last week at least 400 people were detained in several provinces and 30 were arrested on “terrorism”-related allegations after being questioned about their peaceful activities dating from more than a decade ago.
The arrests follow the Turkish government’s removal of Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) member Abdullah Zeydan as mayor of Van in eastern Turkey, replacing him with a state-appointed trustee, a move that sparked protests and led to the detention of 400 demonstrators. The European Parliament has condemned this and similar dismissals and urged sanctions against Turkish officials responsible for removing opposition mayors.