According to a newly released report from The Arrested Lawyers initiative.Turkey has prosecuted more than 1,500 attorneys, arresting 599 of them, on terrorism charges, since a 2016 failed coup.
As of Sept. 1, 321 lawyers had been sentenced to a total of 2,022 years in prison for terrorist group membership or disseminating terrorist propaganda.
Turkey survived a coup attempt in 2016, after which a two-year-long state of emergency was declared by the government.
The state of emergency measures are still at work in the country’s judiciary as mass detention continue.
“Lawyers have particularly been targeted due to the identity or affinity of their clients,” the report said.
The report also said Turkey undermined the independence of bar associations with a presidential degree that gives the Turkish president the authority to dismiss chairpersons or board members of bar associations.
The report criticized the Justice Ministry for preventing judges and prosecutors who were dismissed by government decrees during the state of emergency from working as private lawyers.
Turkey has sacked more than 4,000 judges and prosecutors since the failed coup.
