Amsterdam-Ankara-Brussels-Geneva-Grenoble-Montpellier-Ottawa-Paris-Rennes, July 13, 2012. 18 rights and lawyers’ groups express concern to the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders as a trial under terrorism charges is due to open in Istanbul on July 16, 2012.
On July 16, 2012, a trial against 46 lawyers from the Ağrı, Ardahan, Batman, Bursa, Diyarbakır, Denizli, Hakkari, Đstanbul, Đzmir, Kars, Mersin, Mus, Siirt, Sırnak, Urfa, Van Bar Associations, together with one journalist and three staff working for a law firm, will open before the Đstanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 6. 36 of the lawyers are in pre-trial detention since November 2011.
