European human rights body denounces arrest of Turkish activist critical of Erdogan

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A Council of Europe delegation on Friday denounced the arrest of a Turkish human rights and LGBTQ+ activist who was detained after delivering a speech critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government at a session of Europe’s leading human rights body.

Enes Hocaogullari, who took part in a March meeting of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, as one of Turkey’s youth delegates, was arrested last month after he criticized the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and other opposition figures.

The 23-year-old activist also spoke out against alleged police violence during protests that erupted following Imamoglu’s arrest.

Marc Cools, president of a delegation of the Council of Europe’s local and regional authorities congress, said there was no legal justification for Hocaogullari’s prosecution or detention.

“Silencing Enes is silencing youth — and silencing youth is silencing democracy itself,” Cools said after visiting Hocaogullari in prison Friday and meeting a day earlier with Turkey’s deputy justice minister and other officials in Ankara.

Hocaogullari was taken into custody at Ankara’s Esenboga airport in August and later charged with “publicly disseminating misleading information” and “inciting hatred and enmity among the public.”

The first hearing of his trial is scheduled for Sept. 8.

“We hope that justice will prevail, that all charges will be dropped, that he will be immediately released,” Cools said.

Imamoglu, a popular opposition figure seen as the main rival to Erdogan in the presidential elections, was arrested in March over allegations of corruption, which he strongly denies. He was officially nominated as the presidential candidate for the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, following his imprisonment.

Several other CHP mayors and municipal employees have also been arrested as part of investigations into alleged corruption. The CHP denies the accusations.

Critics view the arrests as a politically motivated crackdown on the CHP, which made significant gains in local elections last year. The government denies the accusation, asserting that the judiciary operates independently and that the investigations target serious corruption allegations.

Opposition parties and human rights organizations have accused Erdogan of undermining democracy and curbing freedom of expression during his more than two decades in power.