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A group of United Nations experts has issued a fresh call to the Turkish authorities to release the chair of Amnesty International Turkey, Taner Kiliç, who has been held since June 2017 on terrorism charges, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a press release. 

“We are concerned by the seemingly arbitrary detention of Taner Kiliç, which is evidently linked to his work in defending human rights,” the five experts said in a joint statement released in Geneva.

“We are particularly dismayed that only one day after an Istanbul court had ordered his conditional release, the decision was reversed by another court. We call on the Turkish authorities to immediately release Mr. Kiliç and drop the terrorism charges against him.”

An Istanbul court ordered Mr. Kiliç’s conditional release from pre-trial detention on 31 January 2018, but the prosecutor appealed the ruling and he was re-arrested and moved into Gendarmerie custody the following day and subsequently to a new prison.

His lawyers have appealed the decision. The subsequent review of the case will take place next month, and the next court hearing is scheduled for 21 June 2018.