Amnesty International on Thursday demanded the release of those arrested at Istanbul’s banned Pride march in July.  The statement came ahead of their scheduled trial on Friday for violating a ban on Pride events issued by the governor of the city.

In total, 53 individuals and three activists remain in detention after being arrested during Istanbul Pride, which appears to contradict a 2023 decision from the Committee of Ministers of the European Court of Human Rights that urged Türkiye to cease arresting and prosecuting protestors participating in peaceful protest in accordance with Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In Türkiye, Article 19 of Law 2911 allows governors to ban protests “for the purposes of national security, public order, preventing crime, protecting public health and morals, or the rights and freedoms of others.” Pride demonstrations have been banned in Istanbul under the auspices of the public morality and security provisions of this law, and other national emergency provisions for nine years.

Rights organizations have argued that the protest ban has no legal justification, contending that the blanket ban on Pride events is disproportionate to any legitimate security or public morality concerns. Rights groups also allegedly documented police utilizing what they describe as “torture” against individuals who were arrested at Pride events, with individuals wearing LGBTQ+ symbols in public being allegedly targeted by state forces.

Although freedom of assembly is protected by Türkiye’s constitution, in practice, the freedom has eroded significantly since coup attempts in 2015 and 2016 that resulted in a two-year-long state of emergency in which LGBTQ+ groups were allegedly targeted by authorities.

This comes amidst a rise in the normalization of hateful rhetoric towards the LGBTQ+ community from state officials reported by Human Rights Watch since the Turkish elections in 2023.