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Turkey has jailed six human-rights activists, including Amnesty International's Turkey chief, for allegedly aiding terrorists. Police arrested the six during a raid on a hotel on the island of Buyukada on July 5, during a digital security workshop. On Tuesday a court in Istanbul ordered them to remain behind bars until a trial. In addition to Amnesty's director of operations in Turkey, Idil Eser, German and Swiss human-rights workers were among the detainees. Turkish media reports said the six are accused of having been in contact with Kurdish and leftist militants and suspected members of the movement led by exiled Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen - once President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's close ally, but now at the top of the Turkish government's most-wanted list. "This is not a legitimate investigation. This is a politically motivated witch hunt that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey," Amnesty secretary general Salil Shetty said Tuesday. The United States also condemned the arrests. "Prosecutions like these with little evidence or transparency undermine Turkey's rule of law and the country's obligation to respect individual rights," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters. The U.S. urged Turkey to drop the charges, free the six prisoners, and lift provisions of the country's state of emergency that allow what the U.S. spokeswoman called the "indiscriminate prosecutions of individuals." | 
