Report says no evidence exists Taner Kılıç ever had ByLock app on his phone, basis of terror charges against him

Turkey’s Amnesty chair, Taner Kılıç, could be freed this week following a year in detention after a police report conceded there was no evidence to back up the chief basis of the charges against him.

The case is being watched closely by the European commission as a bellwether of Turkey’s overall political direction in the midst of its closely fought presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday.

The newly submitted 15-page police report presents no evidence to show that Kılıç ever had the encrypted mobile messaging app ByLock on his phone, which Turkish authorities claim is used by followers of the exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen. The prosecution alleged that the presence of the app was sufficient grounds to charge him with terrorist offences last June.

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Amnesty had previously commissioned two expert reports to show ByLock had never been on his phone, but the reports did not persuade the courts to release him. Kılıç is facing a further hearing on 21 June.

The new police report – seen by Amnesty – details the forensic examinations carried out on Kılıç’s laptop, mobile phone, three USB sticks, a sim card and a memory card. The report concludes that “there is no evidence that falls within the parameters of the investigation” for each of the items under investigation.

The presence of ByLock on a phone has been used by the Turkish authorities repeatedly as evidence to prove that the owner was part of a secret network of Gülenists accused of masterminding a failed coup against the Turkish state two years ago. Tens of thousands have lost their jobs or been imprisoned on allegations of being a Gülenist in the past two years.

Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said: “The failure to substantiate the accusation against Taner comes as no shock. What is shocking is that it has taken more than a year for this police report to be submitted, and during that time Taner has been locked behind bars.

“Taner has become a potent symbol of what is happening in today’s Turkey, where many human rights defenders spend their days either languishing in jail or living in constant fear of being imprisoned for months or years. It is high time to end this relentless crackdown on human rights.”

Kılıç was detained on 6 June last year and sent to jail three days later. Ten other activists, including İdil Eser, Amnesty Turkey’s director, were detained a month later. Eight of them were held for almost four months before being released on bail at their first hearing in October.

In December, the Turkish authorities admitted that thousands of people had been wrongly accused of downloading ByLock. They published lists containing the numbers of 11,480 mobile phone users, leading to mass releases. Kılıç was not yet among those listed for release.