Each day brings new and disturbing accounts of story repression and human rights abuses in Turkey (Turkish journalists rally behind pro-Kurdish paper after arrests, 21 June), most recently in the arrest and detention in Istanbul on 20 June of our colleague and anti-torture campaigner, Sebnem Korur Fincanci, together with human rights activists, Erol Onderolu and Ahmet Nesin. Dr Fincanci has worked tirelessly to support survivors of torture in Turkey and internationally. She played a crucial role in the creation of the Istanbul protocol, the international standard doctors use in medico-legal reports when documenting and assessing torture, and is a member of the International Forensic Expert Group. She has written extensively on torture and medical ethics, in Turkey and elsewhere, and was involved in postmortems from mass graves in Bosnia. It is shameful that such a valiant defender of human rights has been detained since she appears to have been arrested for exercising democratic rights. She and her colleagues should be released immediately and we urge the UK government to press their case with the Turkish government as a matter of urgency.
Susan Munroe
Chief executive, Freedom from Torture
• Recent developments in Turkey are a cause of increasing concern, particularly the intensification of attacks on press freedom and freedom of expression. Journalists, human rights activists and academics, who are considered to be part of the opposition by the ruling AKP government because of their stance against repression and injustice and against the war on the Kurdish people, are being prosecuted almost daily. Spot (Solidarity with People of Turkey) is an initiative started by UK trade unions, academics and politicians with the aim of highlighting these issues and building a solidarity movement here in the UK.
Oktay Sahbaz
Solidarity with People of Turkey
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
