'Turkey has no bias against human rights activists’

By Kemal Karadag

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s justice minister on Thursday said Turkey is a state with an independent and objective judiciary which upholds the rule of law and respects human rights.

Abdulhamit Gul made the remarks in a phone call with Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland, according to a diplomatic source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media,

Gul said Turkey is not prejudiced against human rights activists, referring to the June arrest of 11 suspects, including Taner Kilic, chairman of Amnesty International Turkey, in a police raid of a meeting on Buyukada, an island in Istanbul.

Gul said Turkish prosecutors are carrying out these probes independently and objectively.

Gul also stressed that when there is reasonable suspicion of the commission of a crime, the Turkish judicial system would never exempt anybody, no matter their profession, from being the subject of criminal probes.