Germany concerned by arrest of human rights activist in Turkey

The German government has expressed concern over the arrest of a German human rights activist in Turkey who has been accused by the authorities of terrorism offences.

The fate of Peter Steudtner has increased domestic pressure on German chancellor Angela Merkel to get tough with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan over his human rights record.

Martin Schulz, leader of the left-of-centre Social Democrats, the junior partners in the chancellor's governing coalition, said Ms Merkel should no longer stay silent "when Erdogan has more and more journalists and human rights activists thrown in jail".

“What we’re experiencing at the moment in Turkey crosses all boundaries,” he said.

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A government spokesman said Berlin was "greatly concerned" about the activist's arrest and had no indication that the accusations levelled against him were true.

In solidarity

"We stand in solidarity with Peter Steudtner, who is sitting in Turkish custody with no justification and will stand up for him on all levels," Steffen Seibert, the chancellor's spokesman, later tweeted.

A total of 10 human rights activists were detained in Istanbul on July 5th at a workshop on “digital security and information management”. Mr Steudtner was to lead a session on dealing with stress and trauma. State prosecutors accuse them of supporting an “armed terrorist organisation”.

Mr Steudtner's partner, Magdalena Freudenschuss, told German TV the charges were "absurd". She said they were the opposite of what the activists stand for: "Non-violence, human rights, and things that every society needs".

Four of the 10 were later released pending trial but the other six, including Mr Steudtner, were remanded in custody, with the judge ruling they presented a flight risk.

Mr Erdogan had earlier suggested that the activists had links to the movement of exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of being behind last year's attempted coup.

Those arrested include Ali Gharavi, a Swedish national, and Idil Eser, director of Amnesty International Turkey. The organisation's chair, Taner Kiliç, was arrested a month ago. It was the first time a director and chair of Amnesty International had been detained in the same country at the same time, the group said.

Continuing purge

The arrests are part of the continuing purge against those suspected of involvement in last year’s abortive putsch. More than 100,000 public sector employees have been dismissed, tens of thousands arrested and hundreds of media outlets and non-governmental organisations closed down.

“These arrests are a hammer blow to Turkey’s besieged civil society and an ominous indicator of the direction Turkey is heading in,” Amnesty International said in a statement.

Even before Mr Steudtner's arrest, relations between Germany and Turkey had been strained over the detention in February on terrorism-related charges of Deniz Yücel, a German-Turkish reporter for the newspaper Die Welt.

Last month Germany decided to withdraw its troops from Turkey's Incirlik air base and move them to Jordan after Bundestag members faced repeated delays trying to visit the base.

But the tensions between Ankara and Berlin have had little impact on the EU-Turkey refugee agreement, concluded last year, which aimed to stop migrants leaving Turkey for the EU.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017