Turkey: Erdoğan’s crackdown on lawyers leads to more than 1,500 prosecutions

A report from The Arrested Lawyers Initiative states that there has been a relentless campaign against lawyers across the country.

In 77 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, lawyers have been detained and arrested on trumped-up charges as part of criminal investigations orchestrated by the political authorities and conducted by provincial public prosecutors, the report argues.

As of today, 1,539 lawyers have been prosecuted and 580 have been arrested. So far, 103 lawyers have been sentenced to long imprisonment by the first instance courts under article 3141 of the Turkish Penal Code.