Turkish Court Rules to Keep Amnesty International’s Taner Kilic in Jail

Amnesty International criticized a court ruling on Thursday that kept its Turkey chairman Taner Kilic in jail after a year of imprisonment.

During a hearing in the western province of Izmir on Thursday, police submitted a 15-page document to the court to corroborate the claim of the prosecution that Kilic was “a member of a terrorist organization” and downloaded encrypted ByLock smartphone app.

Amnesty International team that followed the hearing said the document failed to find any evidence that Kilic ever had ByLock on his phone.

“Today’s heart-breaking decision to keep our colleague in jail is yet another travesty of justice,” Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, wrote after the decision.

“After more than a year away from his family, and without a shred of credible evidence presented to substantiate the absurd charges made against him, his cruel and protracted incarceration defies all logic,” he said.

Before the hearing, Shetty slammed the police report about the ByLock downloading.

“The failure to substantiate the accusation against Taner comes as no shock. What is shocking is that it has taken more than a year for his police report to be submitted, and during that time Taner has been locked behind bars,” he said.

“Without a shred of credible evidence presented to substantiate the absurd charges made against him, Taner must now be released. The charges and his detention fly in the face of justice and must be brought to an end once and for all,” Shetty added.

Shetty visited Kilic in prison before the Thursday hearing and wrote about the trial process for The Time.