ECHR Condemns Turkey’s Failure to Release Activist Kavala

Osman Kavala. Photo: Council of Europe.

The measures indicated by Turkey "did not permit it to conclude that the State Party had acted in 'good faith' in a manner compatible with the 'conclusions and spirit' of the Kavala judgment," the court wrote.

It added that despite three earlier decisions of the court ordering his release on bail and one acquittal judgment, Kavala has been held in pre-trial detention for more than four years.

Irish Foreign Minister and Chair of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, Simon Coveney, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, PACE, Tiny Kox, and the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, CoE, Marija Pejcinović Buric, also urged Turkey in a joint statement to follow the ECHR ruling.

"Turkey has failed to fulfil its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. We welcome today's judgment, which provides a definitive answer on this point. We renew our call for the immediate release of Mr Kavala.

"We urge Türkiye, as a Party to the Convention, to take all necessary steps to implement the judgment. This matter will remain under the supervision of the Committee of Ministers until the judgment is fully implemented," the joint statement said.

Turkey dismissed the ruling and the calls for Kavala's release.

"The ECHR, with its decision on the subject, has failed our expectations and once again caused the reputation of the European human rights system to be questioned," Tanju Bilgic, the spokesperson of Turkish Foreign Ministry, said in a statement.

A former board member of the Open Society Foundations in Turkey, Kavala has been in prison since 2017. In April, A Turkish court sentenced Turkish philanthropist and human rights activist...