Taner Kilic, the Chairman of Amnesty International’s Turkey branch, was kept in custody following an appeal by the prosecutor to rearrest him early on Thursday despite a court ruling for his release.
There was a new arrest warrant for Kilic and he was taken from prison into gendarmerie custody in Izmir, Andrew Gardner, a researcher at Amnesty International told dpa.
Earlier on Wednesday, the court ruled that Kilic be released from detention pending trial, and it imposed a travel ban on him.
An Istanbul court, however, accepted the appeal of the prosecutor to renew Kilic’s detention, Gardner said.
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“Kilic is still in gendarmerie custody. We expect him to be brought to an Izmir court soon and for him then to be transferred to prison custody,’’ Gardner said.
Kilic has been in custody since June over charges including involvement with people who attempted a military coup in July 2016.
He was also accused of downloading a suspect messaging application on his phone.
He has denied all charges against him.
Turkish authorities detained 11 activists, including Kilic, during a human rights training workshop in Istanbul in July 2017.
10 of the activists, including Germany’s Peter Steudtner and Swedish colleague Ali Gharavi, had already been released pending trial.
The human rights activists are accused of terrorism-related charges and face up to 15 years in jail if convicted.
