(ANSA) - ISTANBUL, OCTOBER 26 - A Turkish judge on Wednesday ordered the release on bail of eight human rights activists on the first day of a trial in Istanbul against them.

The activists had been detained for over three months on terrorism charges. Among those released was Amnesty International senior official Idil Eser.

Two foreign defendants, German national Peter Steudtner and Swedish Ali Gharavi, were also released, while two other defendants had not been put into preventative detention.

Amnesty's Turkey chairman, Taner Kilic, will remain in detention as he is on trial in a separate case in the city of Izmir.

Kilic will be appearing in court on Thursday on charges of links with an illegal network under imam-in-exile Fethullah Gulen, which is believed by Turkish authorities to have been behind a bloody attempted coup in July 2016. Amnesty has strongly rejected the charges and warned that the outcome of the trial ''will tell us whether being on the side of human rights has become a crime or not in Turkey''. The case has sparked strong protest at the international level against what is considered the latest authoritarian crackdown by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the failed coup attempt. Observers from several countries will be attending the trial and the German and Swedish governments had long urged the release of their citizens on trial. (ANSA).