The Stockholm Center for Freedom reports that two international legal organizations—Lawyers for Lawyers and the Law Society of England and Wales—have called on Turkish authorities to release three attorneys detained ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara. In a joint statement, the groups said the detention of Semra Demir, Kürşat Bafra, and Doğa İncesu appeared tied to their legitimate professional work and reflected wider pressure on civil society and human rights efforts in Türkiye.

The three lawyers were among 225 people detained in a sweeping counterterrorism operation; a Turkish court ordered 103 detainees arrested, including Demir and Bafra, while 26 others were released under judicial supervision. The organizations urged authorities to guarantee all detainees access to legal counsel and to investigate claims that a lawyer and a detainee were assaulted at the Ankara Police Department. They noted that the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD), to which the three belong, has long faced judicial harassment, and pressed Türkiye to honor its obligations under international human rights treaties and to stop criminalizing lawyers for carrying out their duties. The piece also notes that Türkiye ranked 118th of 143 countries in the World Justice Project’s most recent Rule of Law Index.

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