Turkey had detained 8 human rights defenders and 2 international trainers from a meeting they were holding in the Prince’s Islands in Istanbul on July 5. The detainees were referred to court 12 days after their detention and 6 of them were remanded in custody on charges of “aiding a terrorist organization”. The jailed activists are Amnesty International Turkey Director Idil Eser, Ali Gharawi from Sweden, Peter Steudtner from Germany, Veli Acu and Günal Kurşun of the Human Rights Agenda Association, and Özlem Dalkiran of the Citizen’s Assembly.

Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor has today issued an arrest warrant for the other 4 human rights activists who were released from detention 3 days ago; Nalan Erkem of the Citizen’s Assembly, Şeyhmus Özbekli of the Rights Initiative, Nejat Taştan of the Equal Rights Watch Association and İlknur Üstün of the Women’s Coalition.