Firat Anli, mayor of Diyarbakir city, said Tahir Elci was shot today while he was making a press statement.
Elci, the head of the bar association in the mainly Kurdish city, was detained last month for saying during a live news program that the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, is not a terrorist organization.
A Turkish prosecutor was seeking more than 7 years in prison for Elci on charges of making terrorist propaganda.