14 of detained or arrested lawyers are the presidents or former presidents of provincial bars associations.

All persecuted lawyers are being charged with terror-linked offenses such as being the member of the armed terrorist organisation or to run an armed terrorist organisation. Pursuant to Turkish Penal Code, these two offences require 7,5 to 22,5 years imprisonment.

So far,  39 lawyers were sentenced to long imprisonment. Erzincan 2nd High Penal Court sentenced lawyers Cemalettin Ozer and Talip Nayir who are (respectively) former president of Erzincan Bar Association and former board member of association 8 years 9 month and 10 years,  Erzurum 2nd High Penal Court sentenced Mehmet Güzel who is former president of Erzurum Bar Association and 4 other lawyer range to 1 and 13 years, Eskisehir 2nd High Penal Court sentenced 11 lawyers to range 4 to 12 years. Sivas 2nd High Penal Court and Adana 11th High Penal Court sentenced lawyers to ranging from 3 to 9 years imprisonment with the charge of being the member of the armed terrorist organisation.

In addition to these lawyers, at least 149 public (gov’t) attorneys & legal advisers, 108 law schools academics were dismissed with emergency decrees, most of them were also detained or arrested. As the most recent ring of Erdogan’s persecution chain, ten respected human rights defenders including the chair and director of Amnesty International Turkey Branch were arrested.

The Turkish government has also targeted Turkish lawyers’ right to free association. 34 different lawyers’ societies or associations have been shut down since the declaration of the state of emergency. Following their closing down by a government decree, all their assets have also been confiscated without compensation.

Also, 5218 judges and prosecutors were dismissed and they were subsequently arrested. There are still 2600 judges and public prosecutors in prison with nearly 680 of them in solitary confinement. (For our all reports go to https://arrestedlawyers.org/category/reports/)