The Human Rights Association (IHD), Lawyers for Freedom Association (ÖHD), Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD) and Turkish Human Rights Foundation (TİHV) in Izmir protested to IHD co-chair Zilan Gümüş being followed, harassed and threatened by the police.

Representatives of political parties and institutions in the city attended a press conference held at the IHD office.

IHD Izmir Branch executive Gülay Bilici stated that Zilan Gümüş has been subjected to police harassment many times recently due to the activities of the association.

Gülay Bilici said that Zilan Gümüş was followed in front of her law office, her house, and in the areas where she lived her private life, and said: "She was followed in the public transport vehicle she got on, and when she got off, she was stopped and exposed to pressure and threats. This police harassment that Zilan Gümüş experienced was due to the human rights struggle and association activities. This harassment is nothing but an effort to intimidate and silence women human rights defenders and the human rights struggle."

Gülay Bilici underlined that the IHD has been struggling on many issues such as rights violations, fair trial, peace, torture in prisons and suspicious deaths since the day it was founded, and added that 23 IHD members and executives lost their lives in "unknown perpetrators" murders.

Stating that they will continue the fight despite all this, Gülay Bilici said: "Stop the pressure and harassment against human rights defenders. The police harassment against our friend Zilan Gümüş must end as soon as possible. We follow the process of conducting the necessary administrative and judicial investigation against the police officers and revealing and punishing those responsible."

Zilan Gümüş, on the other hand, said that she was subjected to this pressure because she was a human rights defender and that she would not step back from the struggle.