Court overrules closure of leading women's rights group

ISTANBUL

An Istanbul court has rejected prosecutor attempts to shut down a leading anti-femicide campaign group on charges of violating administrative laws and "morality."

Cheers from the We Will Stop Femicide Platform members and supporters went up in Istanbul's main courthouse when the presiding judge dropped the case after four hearings stretching over 15 months.

"We will continue to fight. We will not give up our rights and political struggle," the campaign group's secretary-general Fidan Ataselim said after the hearing.

Police cordoned off the courthouse and detained two supporters of the campaign group ahead of the closely watched verdict.

Prosecutors had asked the court to close the group for "acting against the law and morality" in hearings that had stretched out for more than a year. The group called the charges political and said it was never presented with an explanation as to which laws it was supposed to have violated.

The NGO was established 12 years ago to protest against the murders of women in the country but has since become one of Türkiye's most prominent social movements. It has organized several mass demonstrations over the increasing number of femicides.

The platform says 403 women were murdered in Türkiye last year and 423 in 2021.