Ankara, July 6 (IANS): Turkish police on Thursday arrested eight leading human rights activists in Istanbul including Amnesty International's Turkey director Idil Eser, the media reported.
Two trainers -- from Germany and Sweden -- were also arrested in the raid on a digital security workshop run by Amnesty at a hotel in Buyukada, reports the BBC.
The police raid was "blatantly without cause", an Amnesty statement said.
The activists' whereabouts were yet not known.
The police action "is a grotesque abuse of power and highlights the precarious situation facing human rights activists in the country", said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's Secretary General.
"Idil Eser and those detained with her must be immediately and unconditionally released," the BBC quoted Shetty as saying.
Police have jailed more than 50,000 people across Turkey since a coup plot a year ago.