Mehmet Osman Kavala has been detained on spurious charges since October 2017. On 10 December 2019, in the Kavala v Turkey judgment, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found multiple violations of his rights arising from the unfounded arrest, detention and prosecution of the prominent human rights defender. Unusually, the Court required his immediate release. Mr Kavala and others were subsequently acquitted by a Turkish court, and briefly released. However on 19 February 2020, in a striking rebuke to the authority of the European Court and to the rule of law more broadly, Mr Kavala was rearrested hours after finally gaining his freedom.
His case is emblematic of the crisis facing civil society and the rule of law in Turkey. Vague and broad-reaching laws governing support for terrorism, attacks on constitutional order and criminalising protest and dissent facilitate this type of judicial harassment and the suffocation of human rights defence in Turkey that his case represents. Our third party intervention before the European Court, on behalf of the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project and PEN International, available here, outlines international law standards, including on the appropriate use of criminal law and free expression, and the duties to protect human rights defenders. A summary of the Court’s judgment is here.
On 3 December 2020, the latest resolution of the Committee of Ministers was handed down expressing “profound concern” and calling for Turkey to “assure the applicant’s immediate release.” The resolution is available here.