Nalan Erkem, Seyhmuz Ozbekli, Ozlem Dalkiran, Idil Eser, Veli Acu, Gunal Kursun, Ilknur Ustun, Nejat Tastan, Ali Gharavi and Peter Steudtner were to be called the "Istanbul 10", after their arrest on 5 July 2017. They had gathered in the island Büyükada outside Istanbul for a workshop about protection of digital information. The arrest of these human rights defenders attracted international media attention and led to several diplomatic negotiations.
The "Istanbul 10" were released on bail on 25 October 2017, after 113 days in detention. Amnesty International's Chair in Turkey, Taner Kılıç, was only released on 16 August 2018.
The Büyükada arrests
On 5 July 2017, ten human rights activists were arrested on the island Büyükada outside Istanbul. The arrested persons were from different human rights organisations. Eight of the arrested people were Turkish citizens, one was German and another one was Swedish-Iranian. Amnesty International's Turkish chairman, Taner Kılıç, was arrested already on 6 June, but was included in the prosecution with the others. The foreign citizens held a workshop for the Turkish activists about protection of digital information. On the third day of the workshop approximately 20 men wearing guns entered and arrested the activists.
The arrested
The "Istanbul 10" refers to the group of human rights activists arrested during a workshop on the island of Büyükada, off the coast of Istanbul, where the activists were holding a digital security workshop. The activists were coming from different European countries as well as Turkey. A list of the arrested is below:
İdil Eser, the Director of Amnesty Turkey (also, member of Citizens' Assembly) İlknur Üstün, Women's Coalition Günal Kurşun, Human Rights Agenda Association Nalan Erkem, Citizens’ Assembly Özlem Dalkıran, Citizens’ Assembly Veli Acu, Human Rights Agenda Association Şeyhmus Özbekli, lawyer Nejat Taştan, Association for Monitoring Equal Rights Ali Gharavi, digital strategy and wellbeing consultant, writer Peter Steudtner, trainer for non-violence, digital strategy and well-being consultant
Additionally, Amnesty International's Chair in Turkey, Taner Kılıç, was linked to the Büyükada case despite not being physically present on the Island.
The arrests happened in the framework of the purge that the Turkish government enforced following the attempted coup of July 15, 2016.
Detention
Ali Gharavi and Peter Steudtner were moved between several prisons, one of the prisons they were detained in was Silivri Prison, but they were not allowed to meet. Silivri prison is one of Turkeys most guarded prisons with thousands of political prisoners.
The trial
After 12 days without charges, the ten human rights defenders were interviewed by public prosecutors in the Judicial Palace in Istanbul on 17 July 2017. The same day the public prosecutor ordered the detention of all ten human rights defenders. The judge ordered a pre-trial detention for six of them on 18 July. All ten were charged for aiding an armed terrorist organisation. Ozlem Dalkiran, Idil Eser, Veli Acu, Gunal Kursun, Ali Gharavi and Peter Steudtner were kept in detention while Nalan Erkem, Seyhmuz Ozbekli, Ilknur Ustun and Nejat Tastan were released but put under other judicial restrictions. Upon appeal of the public prosecutor, Nalan Erkem and Ilknur Ustun were remanded into custody again on July 24.
International reaction to the arrests in the press and politics
The arrests of the ten activists sparked reactions in the countries of provenience of the activists as well as worldwide, both in the press and the political arena.
Turkey
On 6 July, the pro-government newspaper Sabah published an article regarding the detention and included the section "Reminds of the July 15 Meeting":
"17 people, who are majorly foreign, arrived in a hotel in Büyükada on July 15 (coup attempt) and held a two-day meeting. American Professor Henri Barkey, who works for CIA, was also there."
On 7 July, two days after the detention, Amnesty International released a video on Twitter, with the text "In 1998 we campaigned for release of a prisoner of conscience Erdogan. Now we're asking him to release our staff". On 8 July, three days after the detention, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended a press conference following 2017 G20 Hamburg summit. As a response to a reporter's question regarding the above-mentioned video, Erdogan stated the following: