Turkish court acquits former local Amnesty head, others of terrorism charges

A Turkish court on Tuesday acquitted the former local head of Amnesty International, Taner Kilic, and three other rights activists in a re-trial of a protracted case on terrorism charges, the rights group said.

In 2020, Kilic, a former honorary chairman of Amnesty Turkey, was sentenced to more than six years in prison on charges of supporting US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for orchestrating an attempted coup in 2016.

Three other rights activists were sentenced to two years and one month in jail for assisting a terrorist organisation. Those accused denied the charges.

Turkey's top appeals court, The Court of Cassation, referred Kilic's case back to a first-instance court last year on the grounds of an "incomplete investigation".

Good news for #Turkey: 4 human rights defenders are finally acquitted, six years after their first arrest. They include Taner Kılıç @Amnesty Türkiye’s Honorary Chair. Today’s ruling brings to an end a travesty of justice of spectacular proportions. https://t.co/0TS4wqlnvQ

— Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) June 6, 2023

The lower court ruled to acquit all four defendants due to a lack of sufficient evidence, the rights group said.

At the time, the prosecution alleged the defendants, who participated in a workshop on digital security on the island of Buyukada, near Istanbul, had come together for a secret meeting to organise an uprising and foment chaos.

Critics say that Turkey's courts muzzle free speech and political dissent under pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, charges the government denies. (Reporting by Burcu Karakas; Writing by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Christina Fincher)