ANKARA: A Council of Europe delegation on Friday denounced the arrest of a Turkish human rights and 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 Turkiye’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 Turkiye’s deputy justice minister and other officials in Ankara.
