(Istanbul, November 1, 2024) – Türkiye’s continued unlawful detention of the human rights defender Osman Kavala is a result of prosecutors and courts effectively operating under the political control of the government, three human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, said in a third-party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights regarding his case. The groups called for Kavala’s immediate release and for his conviction to be overturned, to give effect to the binding judgements of the European Court.
Kavala, who as of November 1, 2024, has spent seven years behind bars, was convicted on baseless charges of attempting to overthrow the government following a manifestly unfair trial. He remains in prison despite two binding judgements from the European Court holding that his detention is arbitrary and serves political purposes. Kavala is serving a life sentence without parole and four others convicted with him are serving prison terms of 18 years for their alleged roles in the 2013 mass protests triggered by an urban transformation plan around Istanbul’s Gezi Park.
In January, Kavala submitted a new application to the European Court, alleging that there had been multiple further violations of his rights since the court’s 2019 ruling, which found that he had been detained without reasonable suspicion and that his detention was politically motivated to silence him.
In this recent application, Kavala’s lawyers focus on his continuing unlawful detention and contend that, taken together, multiple violations of Kavala’s right to a fair trial, and to freedom of expression, assembly and association, as well as violation of the principle of legality, demonstrate that the Turkish authorities have continued to pursue the political aim of silencing and punishing Kavala as a human rights defender. They also contend that the proceedings against him and life sentence without parole amount to a violation of the prohibition on inhuman and degrading treatment and torture. The European Court is expected to issue a judgment in the coming months.
The European Court has accepted Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists, and the Turkey Litigation Support Project as intervenors in the case. On September 16, the groups submitted a third-party intervention to provide further relevant information and context for the court to consider as it adjudicates Kavala’s application. The submission focuses on a well-documented pattern of conduct in Türkiye designed to circumvent the implementation of European Court judgments in politically sensitive cases, notably those involving perceived dissidents.
The rights groups also point to the following features of the domestic system: the capture of the judiciary by the ruling political parties; the lack of independence of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors, which has become a mechanism for consolidating undue influence over the judiciary; serious concerns as regards the independence and effectiveness of the Turkish Constitutional Court; and persistent defiance toward European Court judgments and standards in its caselaw.
