The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decided at a public hearing in Strasbourg on Monday that Turkey did not comply with the ECHR’s ruling in the case of Osman Kavala, thus failing to fulfil its obligations in the context of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The ECHR had ruled in December 2019 that the Convention had been violated in the Kavala case, and called for Kavala’s immediate release. The ECHR had concluded that Kavala’s arrest was based on political motives, with no reasonable evidence to back the charges against him.
Human rights defender Kavala has been incarcerated in Turkey since 2017, and was tried on seperate charges of ‘attempting to overthrow the Government through force and violence’ in the context of the 2013 Gezi Park protests, of ‘attempting to overthrow the constitutional order’ in the context of the failed coup attempt of 15 July 2016′, and of ‘military or political espionage’.
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE) voted on 2 February to start infringement proceedings against Turkey over its non-compliance with the ECHR’s ruling in the Kavala case, and sent the case back to the ECHR for a legal opinion.
The Committee is now expected to discuss the steps to be taken on the basis of the ECHR’s decision.
Former ECHR judge and former MP Rıza Türmen said:
“The issue will now be discussed by the Committee of Ministers (…) They will hold dialogue with Turkey to get it to implement the ECHR’s decision. The order of possible sanctions is not clear, because there is no precedent. But we know what the ultimate sanction is. The ultimate sanction is the suspension of Turkey’s membership. We hope it won’t come to that point.”
Turkish foreign ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç reacted to ECHR’s decision saying:
“The ECHR has frustrated our expectations with its decision today, and caused the credibility of the European human rights sytem to be questioned yet again.”
