Turkish Court Frees Human Rights Workers in Surprising Move
25, 2017
ISTANBUL — An Istanbul court on Wednesday ordered the release of a group of leading Turkish human rights campaigners
and two foreign co-workers — a German and a Swede — in a surprise softening in Turkey’s yearlong prosecutions after a 2016 coup attempt.
" He said computer files that were listed in the indictment as evidence appeared to have been fabricated, and one document contained nothing more than simple instructions on how to transfer computer files from a phone to a storage card.
that I never worked with a terrorist organization; it is completely against my personal convictions.
In a one-day hearing that lasted late into the night, some of the Turkish citizens were charged with having links to followers of Mr. Gulen, or people who used an encrypted application on their cellphone
that prosecutors say was employed by the coup plotters.
The human rights workers included several senior Turkish representatives of Amnesty International, two foreign consultants, a prominent human rights lawyer
and a project specialist for the United Nations World Food Program.
The two foreigners — Peter Steudtner, 46, a German,
and Ali Garawi, 50, a Swede who also has American citizenship — were independent consultants conducting training in stress relief and data security for the small group of human rights campaigners.
The charges against the workers — that they were aiding a terrorist organization — were similar
to those being used to detain tens of thousands of Turkish citizens since the failed coup.