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[Piecake]

ISTANBUL — A Turkish court on Tuesday ordered the formal arrest of Amnesty International’s Turkey director and five other human rights workers in a sign of what rights advocates say is the government’s growing intolerance of critical voices.

The Amnesty director, Idil Eser, was detained along with nine other human rights advocates this month during a raid on a hotel where the group was attending a workshop. Amnesty said in a statement that the rights workers “are suspected, without grounds, of ‘committing crime in the name of a terrorist organization without being a member.’ ”

Four members of the group were released on bail Tuesday but remain under investigation, Amnesty said. “This is not a legitimate prosecution,” Salil Shetty, Amnesty’s secretary general, said in a statement. “This is a politically motivated persecution that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey.”

As part of its campaign to protest the arrests this month, Amnesty called attention to its past advocacy on behalf of Erdogan, who was jailed in 1998 when he was the mayor of Istanbul for reading a poem at a demonstration. The organization said it had written a letter to the Turkish government demanding Erdogan’s release, had declared him a prisoner of conscience and “launched a global campaign on his behalf.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...c5f3e1e2a5c_story.html?utm_term=.0e84f424f778

 

[Frustrated_me]

"Erdogan was the best thing to have happened to Turkey"

🙄

 

[Trojita]

“are suspected, without grounds, of ‘committing crime in the name of a terrorist organization without being a member.’ 

What

 

[JonnyDBrit]

“are suspected, without grounds, of ‘committing crime in the name of a terrorist organization without being a member.’ 

What

Erdogan's government has a nasty habit of accusing anyone they don't like as supporting terrorism. This is a higher profile than usual, but sadly I don't expect much in the way of practical backlash from the international community.

 

[JoeyJungle]

"Erdogan was the best thing to have happened to Turkey"

��

This was true just a few years ago. It's incredible how he's shifted from westernizing the country and turning it into a stable democracy, into solidifying it as a dictatorship and cementing his role at the top.

 

[PhantomThief]

What the fuck. Eu do something about this shit man wtf? How you the EU let this maniac run a good country into the fucking ground?

Having visited Turkey a number of times, I really cant streas enough how bad this is.

 

[Tempy]

Waiting for the Erdogan Defense Force to pop up.

 

[Kayhan]

Time to throw Turkey out of the international community.

Erdogan is a menace to civilized Turkey.

 

[zashga]

Just another day in a budding dictatorship. Looking forward to a certain someone chiming in that Ataturk was just as bad.

 

[frontovik]

Good luck with that EU bid, Turkey.

 

[SamVimes]

What the fuck. Eu do something about this shit man wtf? How you the EU let this maniac run a good country into the fucking ground?

Having visited Turkey a number of times, I really cant streas enough how bad this is.

What's the EU supposed to do?

 

[Mimosa97]

Waiting for the Erdogan Defense Force to pop up.

I don't know what happened to all the Erdogan chills. There were a lot of them.

 

[PhantomThief]

Just another day in a budding dictatorship. Looking forward to a certain someone chiming in that Ataturk was just as bad.

Dont wake the pigeon.

 

[PhantomThief]

What's the EU supposed to do?

Something!? Harsh words? Condemnation? Stop trade? Give a negative traveling advice and not book any vacations to Turkey?