Earlier this month the trial of Figen Yüksekdağ, co-chair of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), began in Turkey’s capital of Ankara. Accused of supporting Kurdish separatists in the country’s southeast, Yüksekdağ has already been stripped of her place in Turkey’s parliament — but now the Erdoğan government is pursuing terrorism-related charges which come with the threat of an eighty-three-year jail term.

Yüksekdağ is represented, symbolically, by 1,200 lawyers, whose numbers represent a political stand against the government’s attacks on opposition politicians. Her lead lawyer, Gülseren Yoleri, argues that stripping her of her seat was illegal, her arrest was dubious, and the entire process resembles a “premeditated” attack on the HDP.

On July 4 I, as part of a delegation of politicians and lawyers from across Europe, attempted to observe the first hearing in the prosecution. The delegation was subjected to police harassment throughout the day and eventually denied entry to the hearing in breach of well-established international legal principles. The hearing took place in the absence of any international observers and was eventually adjourned to September 18 without the granting of bail.