According to a recent report by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV), over 1,400 people were subjected to judicial and administrative harassment because of their human rights-related activities in Turkey within the first four months of 2022.

Twenty-three humans rights activists were sentenced to prison terms over accusations related to their activities. Of these, one was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment, and 22 were sentenced to prison terms that amounted to a total of more than 211 years.

Criminal investigations were launched for 367 people in relation to their human rights activities in the same period of time, 305 activists were detained, and 16 were arrested.

Twenty-three activists were subjected to threats or physical violence, or were publicly targeted by the authorities.

As provincial authorities continued to ban demonstrations and certain public statements in the first four months of 2022, a total of 74 demonstrations were either banned or forcibly dispersed by the police.

The Foundation said in a statement:

“All these pressures, interventions and attacks lead to a culmination of a social and political climate of violence, discrimination, hate and hostility against human rights activists. They destroy the legitimacy of human rights in the eyes of society and lead to its criminalisation.”

The foundation called upon the Turkish authorities to stop targeting human rights activists forthwith.