HRW: Turkiye using courts, laws to crack down on opposition ahead of upcoming elections

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Turkish government under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of aggressively cracking down on political opposition and forms of dissent through the use of courts and legislation, in an apparent attempt to win the upcoming elections this summer.

According to HRW’s annual World Report, Turkish authorities have been wielding online censorship and disinformation laws to suppress the political opposition and to silence independent media in the country.

Actions that the report cited as evidence of the crackdown include President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks that the presidential and parliamentary elections could be held earlier than their set date in June.

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There is also last month’s court sentencing of Istanbul Mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu – thought to be a potential candidate against Erdogan – to two years and seven months in prison and a political ban for insulting public officials in 2019, along with the Supreme Court’s freezing of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) bank accounts while the case to shut it down is ongoing. The government alleges that it has ties to Kurdish militants, which the Party denies.

The report also cited Turkiye’s adoption of a law that would jail journalists and social media users for up to three years for spreading “disinformation”, a term activists and human rights organisations say has not been clearly defined and which would infringe on freedom of speech.

According to Hugh Williamson, HRW’s Europe and Central Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, “The government has carried out highly abusive manoeuvres against the political opposition, blanket bans on public protest, and the jailing and conviction of human rights defenders and perceived critics by courts operating under political orders”.

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