'Turkey has no bias against human rights activists’

Turkey's justice minister on Thursday said Turkey is a state with an independent and objective judiciary which upholds the rule of law and respects human rights.

Abdülhamit Gül made the remarks in a phone call with Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland, according to a diplomatic source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media,

Gül said Turkey is not prejudiced against human rights activists, referring to the June arrest of 11 suspects, including Taner Kılıç, chairman of Amnesty International Turkey, in a police raid of a meeting on Büyükada, an island in Istanbul.

Gül said Turkish prosecutors are carrying out these probes independently and objectively.

Gül also stressed that when there is reasonable suspicion of the commission of a crime, the Turkish judicial system would never exempt anybody, no matter their profession, from being the subject of criminal probes.