TURKEY: Joint Statement on the Arrest and Detention of Lawyer Ruken Gülağacı
The OIAD together with the undersigned bar associations and lawyers’ rights organisations express their deep concern over the detention of lawyer Ruken Gülağacı on 20 May 2025. On 21 May, the Criminal Peace Judgeship issued a house arrest order against Ms Gülağacı—an alarming escalation that further compounds our concern.
We, the undersigned, call on the Turkish authorities to:
- Immediately and unconditionally lift the order of house arrest against Ruken Gülağacı and the release of all other lawyers detained solely for performing their professional duties;
- Ensure that pre-trial detention and house arrest are applied only as exceptional measures of last resort, with full respect for due process and the right to be heard before a judge;
- End all forms of harassment, intimidation, and arbitrary detention targeting lawyers, and refrain from unlawfully identifying lawyers with their clients or their clients’ political or social positions;
- Promptly sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer, thereby reinforcing its commitment to the international legal framework governing the independence and protection of legal professionals.
Signatories:
- Asociación de Derecho Penitenciario “Rebeca Santamalia” – Estado español (ASDEPRES)
- Asociación Libre de Abogacia (ALA) (Spain)
- Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía (APDHA)
- Avocats Européens Démocrates – EuropeanDemocratic Lawyers
- Bologna Bar Association (Italy)
- CCBE – Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe
- Cooperative of Women Lawyers in Barcelona (IACTA)
- Cyprus Democratic Lawyers Association (CDLA)
- Défense Sans Frontière – Avocats Solidaires.
- Democratic Jurists (Italy)
- Democratic Lawyers of Switzerland (DJS-JDS)
- Deutscher Anwaltverein (German Bar Association)
- European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH)
- Euskal Herriko Giza eskubideenBehatokia( Basque Country)
- Foundation Day of the Endangered Lawyer (the Netherlands)
- Lawyer Leonardo Arnau, the Chair of the Human Rights Committee of Consiglio Nazionale Forense (Italy)
- Il Centro di Ricerca ed Elaborazione per la Democrazia ( CRED) (Italy)
- Institut des Droits de l’Homme du Barreau de Montpellier (France)
- Institute for the Rule of Law of the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA-IROL)
- International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL)
- International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
- International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger (OIAD)
- Lawyers for Lawyers (the Netherlands)
- Legal Centre Lesvos, (Greece)
- Legal Team Italia
- Le SAD – Syndicat des Avocats pour la Démocratie (Belgium)
- MAF-DAD – Association for Democracy and International Law e.V. (Germany)
- Osservatorio Avvocati Minacciati (Italy)
- Republikanischer Anwältinnen- und Anwälteverein (RAV e.V.) (Germany)
- Socialist Lawyers Association of Ireland
- The Defence Commission of the Barcelona Bar Association
- The Law Society of England and Wales (UK)
- The Norwegian Bar Association
- Turkey Litigation Support Project (TLSP)
- Turin Bar Association (Italy)
- Unione delle Camere Penali Italiane (UCPI)
- Vereinigung Demokratischer Juristinnen und Juristen e.V. (VDJ) (Germany)
- Vereniging SocialeAdvocatuur Nederland (VSAN) (the Netherlands)
