Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the statement by Bärbel Kofler, the Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office in Germany, of 13 June 2017, on the arrest and detention of Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça.

We regularly raise concerns with the Turkish authorities over the situation of those who – like Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakca – have been dismissed or detained under the State of Emergency following last year’s attempted coup. We therefore share Ms Kofler’s concerns. We have urged the Turkish authorities to respect international standards, including regarding the presumption of innocence, as well as freedom of expression and assembly.