The former co-chairs of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) were deprived of effective legal assistance during detention within the Turkish legal system, constituting a violation of rights, concluded the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday.
The court stated that the former HDP leaders’ complaints centred around the authorities’ surveillance of their meetings with lawyers and seizure of documents shared with their legal representatives, citing measures that were implemented under a decree following the attempted military coup on 15 July 2016.
The court reminded the government that it had previously dismissed claims that the applicants were detained and prosecuted for terrorism-related offences. Therefore, the court ruled that the necessary conditions for imposing such restrictions were not met.
The applicants, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, based their appeal on a ECHR article which safeguards the right to appeal to a court for release if the detention is deemed unlawful. The ECHR’s examination of the case revealed that the violation of confidentiality during discussions between the jailed politicians and their lawyers hindered their access to effective legal assistance.
In response to the violation, the ECHR ordered Turkey to compensate each applicant with 5,500 euros for non-pecuniary damages, as well as a joint payment of 2,500 euros for costs and expenses.
