A coalition of 19 international human rights organizations are calling on Turkish authorities to drop charges against two lawyers, both members of the Progressive Lawyers’ Association (Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği, ÇHD), denouncing their prosecution as part of a broader crackdown on civil society.
The statement condemned Turkish authorities for using judicial harassment and arbitrary detention to silence dissent, accusing them of systematically targeting the ÇHD.
Betül Vangölü Kozağaçlı and Seda Şaraldı, both lawyers with the ÇHD, have been held in pretrial detention since February 2024, facing charges of “membership in an illegal organization” — an allegation frequently used against lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders in Turkey. Their hearings were scheduled for February 12 and February 20, 2025. Kozağaçlı was released on Wednesday after the hearing.
The details of the accusations against the lawyers were not disclosed.
In a joint statement a coalition of human rights organizations, including the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the European Democratic Lawyers (AED-EDL), demanded the immediate release of the lawyers and called for the dismissal of all charges.
Leftist and progressive lawyers groups frequently face detentions and investigations in Turkey, where lawyers risk being targeted by the authorities due to the identity of their clients.
Many legal professionals have in recent years been charged with the same crimes as the clients that they represented.
According to the ÇHD, they were not provided with any details regarding the investigation into the lawyers. The detainees were not informed of the charges against them and were denied access to their attorneys for 24 hours.
Among the other signatories of the statement are the Berlin Bar Association, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the New York City Bar Association, the Law Society of England and Wales and the International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger (OIAD).
The ÇHD lawyers have in the past taken on politically sensitive cases such as a 2014 mining disaster in Soma that took the lives of 301 miners; the death of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who was hit on the head with a teargas canister fired by a police officer during the June 2013 anti-government Gezi protests; and the death of Engin Çeber in prison in 2008 due to torture.
They were also recently involved in documenting a series of violent attacks on Syrian refugees in Kayseri, where locals targeted their homes, workplaces and vehicles. The unrest quickly spread to other cities. In Gaziantep, on the Syrian border, groups chanted nationalist slogans while vandalizing Syrian-owned vehicles and businesses.
