Each of these concerns applies in the context of the decisions by the Ministry of the Interior of 19 August 2019. During the meetings held by the rapporteurs in Ankara, several representatives of opposition parties and of civil society claimed that the criminal investigations referred to relied either in whole or in part a) on obviously non-criminal conduct such as provision of medical services and participation in civil society, and in 16 out of 22 investigations on the generalised allegation of “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation”; and b) on the testimony of a single individual who stood to obtain immediate release from custody in exchange for providing evidence. While the rapporteurs were not able to verify this information, it is noteworthy that one of the three mayors concerned – the mayor of the metropolitan city Mardin – was acquitted by court decision of 14 February 2020 of the charges that had led to his suspension, due to the absence of criminal elements. In any case, it is worrying that the legal framework does not provide for clear safeguards to prevent such possible instances, such as a clear definition of the offences of aiding and abetting terrorism and terrorist organisations and of the evidentiary threshold.