“By not releasing Osman Kavala from detention, the Turkish authorities failed to abide by the Court’s judgement”, says the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights in “written comments” sent to the European Court of Human Rights.
Published on Thursday 14 April, these observations are part of the “infringement proceedings” launched in February by the Committee of Ministers against Turkey after it found that, contrary to a judgement published in 2019, the Turkish authorities had not proceeded to the immediate release of the opponent.
Once this failure has been formalised by the Court - taking into account, inter alia, the observations of the Commissioner, Dunja Mijatović - the matter will be referred to the Committee of Ministers, which may decide on sanctions. These could go as far as the suspension of Turkey’s voting rights in the Council of Europe, or even its exclusion.
In its judgement, the Court stated that Osman Kavala’s continued detention was only intended to silence him.
In February, the Turkish Foreign Minister said that the proceedings “interfere with the independence of judicial proceedings”.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/19K (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)