Trial of 11 human rights activists in Turkey begins
Eleven human rights activists, including Amnesty International's director for Turkey, were detained in July at a meeting near Istanbul and charged with terrorism.
Some human rights activists talk to the media as they wait for the trail outside the Caglayan courthouse in Istanbul, Wednesday, October 25, 2017.
The trial of eleven human rights activists, accused of terrorism has begun on Wednesday in Istanbul.
The activists, who include the local head of Amnesty International and a German and a Swede, face up to 15 years in prison on charges that include membership in and aid to an "armed terrorist organisation."
The court started the trial by checking the identities of the accused.
Back in July, Turkish security forces detained 10 suspects at a meeting in a hotel on an island off Istanbul in July.
The suspects say they were attending a digital security training workshop.
Among those arrested were Amnesty International's Turkey director, Idil Eser, German citizen Peter Frank Steudtner and Swedish citizen Ali Gharavi.
Amnesty's Turkey chairman Taner Kilic, who was imprisoned separately in June, is appearing before a court in the city of Izmir for alleged links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organisation (FETO), which Turkey blames for last year's failed coup.
He is accused of using an encrypted mobile messaging application allegedly used by FETO's network.
The defendants are all accused of aiding, and being members of, an armed terrorist organisation.
They also allegedly communicated with the terror group FETO.
Amnesty International has rejected the charges and called for the immediate release of all the suspects.
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