-Joint Statement – The International Legal Community Condemns the Detention of Attorney Şiar Rişvanoğlu

The undersigned organizations vehemently condemn the detention of Attorney Şiar Rişvanoğlu, who is registered with the Adana Bar Association and a member of the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD), following a police raid on his residence and subsequent arrest at the Çukurova airport in Tarsus. On the morning of 26 November 2024, authorities executed a raid […]

On the arrest of lawyer Berdirhan Sarsılmaz

We, the AED-EDL European Lawyers’ Association, have come to know that on the 25th of October, lawyer Bedirhan Sarsılmaz was taken into custody. At the moment of his detention, lawyer Bedirhan Sarsılmaz, had just finished his plea as part of the defense counsel of his client and was exercising his profession. Lawyer Bedirhan Sarsılmaz of […]

Report of an Independent International Fact-finding Mission to Turkey examining the Treatment of Lawyers Deprived of their Liberty and Observing Trial Proceedings 6-10 November 2023

Between 6 and 10 November 2023, an international delegation representing 27 law societies, bar associations, human rights groups and legal groups undertook a fact-finding mission to Turkey to interview eight lawyers who have been arrested and detained in circumstances that raise a range of human rights concerns. The delegation also observed two court hearings, the […]

Turkey: Top Court Upholds Rights Defender’s Life Term

Conviction of Osman Kavala and Four Others Needs Urgent International Response (Istanbul, October 10, 2023) – The prosecution of the rights defender and businessman Osman Kavala and four codefendants in connection with mass protests a decade ago has been unfair and essentially a political show trial from the beginning, a group of nine non-governmental organizations […]

Criminalisation of Lawyers in Turkey- Report by ÖHD (Lawyers for Freedom) and Diyarbakir Lawyers’ Bar Association

In the morning hours of the 25th of April 2023, during a wide police operation, 191 people, including 25 lawyers and other members of civil society in Turkey were arrested and their houses searched. Of the 25 lawyers initially arrested, 16 have been released under judicial control, following deposition and interrogation procedures. 4 lawyers are […]

Turkey’s terror list: An attack on lawyers and human rights

The undersigned organisations deplore the recent arbitrary designation of Günay Dağ as a “terrorist”. Günay Dağ is a lawyer at the International Bureau of the People’s Law Office and a member of the Progressive Lawyers’ Association (ÇHD). On 30 December 2022, he was added to the list called “list of wanted terrorists” published on the […]

Turkey: Closure case against political party looms

Trial is an assault on political opposition and democratic norms before elections [Istanbul: January 9, 2023] Current efforts to dissolve the second-largest opposition party in Turkey’s parliament ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections are the latest in a deeply problematic practice in Turkey of forcing the closure of political parties, a group of 10 international […]