Jurist European Court of Human Rights: Turkey defied court order set to free detained philanthropist

[Dadparvar]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Monday that Turkey violated a prior judgement in the case Kavala v. Turkey by keeping activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala in detention. The court had previously ruled that Kavala was wrongfully detained, ordering Turkey to release Kavala and pay damages.

Kavala was arrested in 2017, ostensibly for involvement in the Gezi protests in 2013 and an attempted coup d’etat in 2016. However, the ruling in Kavala v. Turkey disputes this accusation, claiming there is insufficient evidence to prove any criminal intent to “overthrow the government.” Kavala brought a complaint to the ECHR for wrongful detainment and won his case, with the court ordering his release. However, upon his release, he was immediately detained again, this time on the charge of “espionage.” Kavala was then sentenced to life in prison for “espionage,” but the ECHR opened infringement proceedings to decide whether this new sentence defied their original judgement.

The court examined whether the facts used to convict Kavala of espionage were substantially similar to those used in the original case, thereby violating the ECHR’s prior ruling. In the newest opinion, the court found that the facts were substantially similar, saying:

The Court therefore concluded that neither the decisions on Mr Kavala’s detention nor the bill of indictment contained any substantially new facts capable of justifying this new suspicion. As during Mr Kavala’s initial detention, the investigating authorities had once again referred to numerous acts which were carried out entirely lawfully to justify his continued pre-trial detention, notwithstanding the constitutional guarantees against arbitrary detention.

The court then determined that this violation of the original judgement should include a penalty of 7,500 euros to be paid to Kavala along with the originally assessed damages.

Turkey responded to the newest ruling by saying:

Our communication with the [Council of Europe (COE)] continued throughout the process. Information has been provided on a regular basis by the Ministry of Justice on the developments in the judicial proceedings in respect of the applicant. Moreover, regarding his detention, the [ECHR] and the CoE Committee of Ministers were also notified about the conviction of the applicant as a result of the domestic proceedings. However, the [ECHR] has unfortunately failed to meet our expectations by the decision announced today…and once again called into question the credibility of the European human rights system.

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