Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Salil Shetty, urged the European Commission’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, to urgently raise the issue of jailed human rights defenders at her meeting with the Turkish Foreign Affairs and EU Ministers later today. Amnesty International’s Turkey Director and Chair, Idil Eser and Taner Kılıç are currently in detention facing terrorism related charges.
Mr Shetty met with Ms Mogherini in Brussels this morning and presented her with an Amnesty/Avaaz petition calling on her to use to her influence to help secure the immediate release of the 10 human rights defenders jailed earlier this month. He then joined scores of activists at a protest outside the European Commission building, the centre piece of which was 10 giant figures representing those jailed.
“This morning I met with Federica Mogherini and presented her with a petition of nearly 900,000 signatures collected in a matter of days calling on her to use her influence to help ensure the immediate and unconditional release of our Amnesty International colleagues and the other human rights defenders jailed in Turkey. We expect her to raise their cases with Ministers Çavuşoğlu and Çelik in the context of growing concerns about the deterioration of the respect for the rule of law and human rights in Turkey,” said Salil Shetty.
