(Istanbul) Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeal has overturned a lower court ruling that ordered the closure of the country’s largest LGBT civil rights group.

Homosexuality has been decriminalized in Turkey as part of a move to make the country more liberal as it attempts to join the European Union, but gays and lesbians regularly report they are abused by police and discriminated against in society.

Last April for the second time in a year, police raided the offices of the Lambda Istanbul Cultural Center.

A dozen police officers were armed with a search warrant that said the center was suspected of being a business that “facilitates prostitution, acts as a go-between [and] provides a place for [prostitution],” criminalized under Article 227 of Turkey’s Penal Code.

A judge in Istanbul, with little evidence from the prosecution, found the organization guilty and ordered police to seal the doors.

The group appealed and the ruling rescinding the order was communicated to Lambda Istanbul’s lawyers on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court of Appeals rejected the local court’s decision on the grounds that reference to LGBT people in the name and the statute of the association did not constitute opposition to Turkish moral values.

The Court’s judgment also recognized the right of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals to form associations.

But the case is not over. The case will now go back to the local court in Istanbul. That court, however, is expected to uphold the Supreme Court of Appeals’ decision.

“This is an important decision upholding the rights of freedom of association and non-discrimination,” said  Amnesty International’s Turkey spokesperson Andrew Gardner.

“The judgment should send a clear message to the authorities not to interfere in the legitimate work of LGBT organizations.”

Last year, another rights group, Human Rights Watch, released a 123-page report detailing harassment and brutality against gays and lesbians throughout Turkey.

Human Rights Watch conducted more than 70 interviews over a three-year period, documenting how gay men and transgender people face beatings, robberies, police harassment, and the threat of murder.

The interviews also outline the physical and psychological violence lesbian and bisexual women and girls confront within their families.

Human Rights Watch said that it found that, in most cases, the response by the authorities is inadequate if not nonexistent.

One gay man recounted how another man stabbed him 17 times in an attempted murder that still remains unsolved. A lesbian couple described how their parents used violence to try to separate them; when they turned to a prosecutor for help, he refused, questioning them instead about their sex life.

The report said that Turkey should not be allowed to join the EU until it guarantees it has ended abuses against its LGBT community.