Seventeen women participating in the Night the HDP and a five-year political ban for its March marking International Women’s Day 451 executives and members. The HDP was on 8 March were detained and later released accused of becoming the focus point of under judicial control measures for “insulting actions contrary to the state’s integrity, based the president” and violating the Law on on criminal prosecutions and convictions Meetings and Demonstrations. In August, an against 520 individuals under overly broad Istanbul court accepted the indictment anti-terrorism laws. requesting that each receive up to eight TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT years’ imprisonment. In April, the gendarmerie responded with In January, a Diyarbakır criminal peace tear gas to a protest by villagers in İkizdere, in judgeship rejected an appeal by Mehmet the province of Rize, against the decision to Sıddık Meşe against the decision not to open a stone mine in the village which they prosecute allegations that he was severely argued would destroy the environment and beaten by guards in Diyarbakır T-type Prison pollute drinking water. Some villagers were No.3 in December 2020. The Diyarbakır Bar detained and later released. Protests Association received similar torture continued despite banning orders by the Rize allegations from inmates of the same prison Governorship. throughout the year. The European In June, the annual Istanbul Pride march Committee for the Prevention of Torture was banned for the sixth consecutive year. visited the prison in January; their report had Police used unnecessary and excessive force not been published by the end of the year. to disperse protesters and detained at least In December, a criminal prosecution was 47 people, including the journalist Bülent initiated against Osman Şiban for Kılıç. All were released later that day. The first “membership of a terrorist organization”. He hearing in the prosecution of eight protesters was allegedly tortured by soldiers in Van in under the Law on Meetings and 2020. The prosecution of four journalists who Demonstrations was held in November. covered the torture case continued at the After two years on trial for taking part in a year’s end. Pride march on campus, 18 students and In December, Garibe Gezer, held on one academic at the Middle East Technical terrorism-related charges in Kandira prison, University in Ankara were acquitted in was found dead in an alleged suicide in her October. The prosecutor appealed against the cell while in solitary confinement. She had decision. The case was pending appeal at the reported being systematically tortured and end of the year. sexually assaulted by prison guards prior to FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION her death. The prosecutor’s office had dismissed an investigation into the The new Law on the Prevention of the allegations. Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES Mass Destruction negatively affected the work of civil society organizations. In October, Hüseyin Galip Küçüközyiğit, former legal the Financial Action Task Force added Turkey adviser at the Prime Ministry accused of links to its “grey list” for increased monitoring. It with the Fettullah Gülen movement, cited Turkey’s failure to address serious reappeared in Ankara prison in September, deficiencies in its efforts to combat money nine months after he was forcibly laundering and financing terrorism, including disappeared. The authorities had denied that its failure to apply a risk-based approach to he was in official custody. Details of his fate supervision of the not-for-profit sector. and whereabouts during those months In June, the Constitutional Court accepted remained unknown at the end of the year. the indictment by the Chief Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation requesting the closure of Amnesty International Report 2021/22 374