Cihan Erdal was ordered to be released on 15 June 2021 pending the conclusion of his criminal trial. Cihan is a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, a sociologist, an academic, youth researcher, a peace activist and an LGBTI+ activist. He is a PhD student at Carleton University in Canada. He had been detained in September 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey, where he was conducting PhD research. He was kept in a basement cell of a detention centre with no air circulation and daylight for eight days before he was transferred to a prison in Ankara.
His release is conditional on his remaining in Turkey and reporting to the local police station twice per week. These restrictions will prevent Cihan from returning to his home in Ottawa, Canada, where his family lives. He also remains at risk of future imprisonment based on charges that are clear violations of his freedom of association and freedom of expression.
Cihan was imprisoned because he was a member of the People’s Democratic Party in Turkey (HDP in Turkish). The HDP was and is a legal political party that opposes many of the policies of the current Turkish government.
Erdal’s arrest last year was part of a large-scale roundup of HDP supporters. According to the government, the HDP incited a deadly insurrection in October 2014, when it urged thousands of people to take to the streets in southeastern Turkey to protest against Ankara’s failure to protect Syrian Kurds against Isis.
Prosecutors have charged a total of 108 defendants and are seeking multiple life sentences and thousands of years in prison without parole.