A Turkish court has rejected an appeal seeking the release of activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala and a review of his case, despite a binding ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
Istanbul’s High Criminal Court upheld a lower court decision that refused to suspend enforcement of Kavala’s sentence, release him and order a retrial, Turkish Minute reports.
The court agreed with the lower instance’s argument that Kavala had not exhausted all domestic legal remedies, as Turkey’s Constitutional Court is still considering his application.
However, the ECHR’s Grand Chamber had already rejected that argument in its decision of 25 August. The European court found that delays at the Constitutional Court and Turkey’s failure to comply with earlier ECHR judgments mean Kavala cannot be required to wait for a ruling from that body. The ECHR ordered Turkey to release the activist as soon as possible and to remedy the consequences of the conviction, which the court found to be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
- Osman Kavala has been behind bars since 2017 and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
- In 2022, he was convicted on charges of attempting to overthrow the government by financing and organising the 2013 Gezi Park protests.
- Kavala denies the charges and insists his prosecution is politically motivated.
- The 2013 protests erupted over plans to redevelop a park in central Istanbul and later grew into large-scale demonstrations across the country against the government of then prime minister, now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
- The ECHR concluded that Kavala’s prosecution and imprisonment were intended to punish him and silence him because of his involvement in the protests and his human rights work.
- The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, which oversees the execution of ECHR judgments, criticised the October refusal to release Kavala in a decision dated 30 October. The committee recalled that all branches of Turkey’s government, including the judiciary, are obliged to comply with the European court’s rulings, and requested information on steps to implement the judgment ahead of its December human rights meeting. Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe and must abide by the European Convention on Human Rights.
- The ECHR first ordered Kavala’s release back in December 2019. Because Turkey did not comply, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers launched infringement proceedings in February 2022, and in July that year the ECHR formally found that Ankara had breached its obligation to comply with the court’s judgment.