Eleven human rights activists including two senior Amnesty International employees have gone on trial in Istanbul on terror charges, in one of the most high-profile tests of Turkish criminal law since a failed coup in 2016. Ten of the activists, including Amnesty’s Turkey director Idil Eser, were arrested while attending a digital security training workshop in July.

They are accused of plotting an uprising and charged with aiding militants as well as the movement led by US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, blamed for last year’s coup attempt. They face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. Amnesty’s Turkey chairman, Taner Kılıç, who was imprisoned separately in June, appeared in court via video link from a prison in Izmir, western Turkey. He will also appear at a hearing in Izmir on Thursday on a separate charge of being a member of a Gülen-linked organisation. Kılıç is accused of using Bylock, an encrypted mobile messaging application that the Turkish prosecuting authorities claim was used by Gülen supporters to communicate secretly before the coup attempt.(theguardian)…[+]