The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan detained a group of international observers who came to Turkey on Sunday to monitor the elections, members of the group told The Intercept in a statement.

The delegation was not officially accredited as observers by the Turkish government but was officially invited by the Democratic Party of the Peoples, the leading Kurdish party, and a key member of the opposition coalition.

Spanish observers included members of the leftist Podemos party, the Basque nationalist coalition EH Bildu, and a senator from the Catalan leftist Esquerra Republicana party. The observers were in the city of Siirt, where large Kurdish populations live when they were detained and taken to a police station on Sunday, election day. The police then went to the hotel where the observers were staying and detained the other members of the delegation, who joined their colleagues detained at the police station.

They were held until Monday morning and released on the condition that they leave the country. On Monday, they were escorted to the airport, from where they flew back to Spain.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry and the Podemos party condemned the detention and subsequent expulsion by Turkey of a delegation of Spanish observers sent to monitor the presidential elections in the country.

The Foreign Ministry made a complaint to the Turkish authorities about the expulsion, and the Spanish embassy was actively involved in the efforts to free the delegates and support them after the expulsion.