Turkey Detains a 2nd Amnesty International Leader
" Mr. Shetty said in a statement. that We are profoundly disturbed and outraged
that some of Turkey’s leading human rights defenders, including the director of Amnesty International Turkey, should have been detained so blatantly without cause,
By PATRICK KINGSLEYJULY 6, 2017
ISTANBUL — A second senior official with Amnesty International, the leading
human rights watchdog, has been detained in Turkey in the space of a month.
Idil Eser, the director of Amnesty’s Turkey office, was detained on Wednesday along with at least 10 others after
a raid on a digital security workshop at a hotel on Buyukada, one of the Princes Islands near Istanbul.
The secretary general of Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, linked the detention of Ms. Eser to the wider state of human rights in Turkey.
He added, "This is a grotesque abuse of power and highlights the precarious situation facing
human rights activists in the country." Follow Patrick Kingsley on Twitter @PatrickKingsley.
The detainees included seven other activists from local rights groups; two foreign trainers;
and the hotel owner, who was later released, Amnesty said.