Turkey: Amnesty leaders on trial for 'aiding a terror group'

The chair of Amnesty International in Turkey, as well as 10 other Amnesty activists, are to go on trial on Wednesday facing 15 years of prison time in one of the most high-profile tests of Turkish criminal law, since the failed 2016 coup, which led to tens of thousands of arrests and dismissals from public office.

chair of Amnesty in Turkey since 2014, Taner Kılıç, is on trial this week on two separate charges, largely on the basis of allegations that he downloaded a widely available phone messaging application called ByLock.

The Turkish prosecuting authorities claim that the app was used by supporters of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen to communicate in secret, before the coup attempt.

The Turkish government asserted that Gülen was the mastermind behind the coup. The Turkish supreme court of appeals ruled, in September, that possession of the encrypted app may be sufficient basis to determine whether someone backed the military uprising.

Kılıç goes on trial in Istanbul on Wednesday along with 10 other Amnesty activists before facing a separate court hearing in İzmir on Thursday, where he faces charges of being a member of a terrorist organisation.

The Istanbul charges relate to a digital security and stress training workshop, which Amnesty held in a hotel outside the city that the prosecuting authorities claim was a secret meeting to organise an uprising, or even conduct espionage. Most of the 10 Amnesty supporters present at the meeting have been held in jail since their arrest on 18 July.

Kılıç did not attend the workshop, as he was in prison after being arrested the previous month. However, he’s accused of knowing it was going forward.

At his separate trial in İzmir, Kılıç faces charges of being a member of a terrorist organisation, largely on the basis that he had downloaded ByLock on to his phone.

Kılıç, in his witness statement, says he had not even heard of the app until after the coup. The Turkish prosecution case states records in its file show his phone number downloaded the app in August 2014.

the ByLock iOS chat