The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights today delivered a landmark
judgment
in the case of Osman Kavala, the
human rights defender and civil society leader
unlawfully imprisoned in Türkiye since November 2017. The Court ruled that Kavala’s continued detention is unlawful and found that his rights to fair trial, freedom of expression and association have been violated. The Court also found that his aggravated life sentence amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment and that the Turkish authorities acted in bad faith by keeping him in detention unlawfully. The Court concluded that he was convicted for the ulterior purpose of punishing and silencing him, and to prevent his human rights work. The Court ordered his release at the earliest possible date and that his conviction be quashed.
Human rights organisations Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists, and the Turkey Litigation Support Project submitted a joint intervention to the Court on the core rights issues at stake in the case. Amnesty International declared Osman Kavala and his six co-defendants prisoners of conscience in June 2022.
Today, the ECHR has comprehensively established that Osman Kavala’s detention is based on a politically motivated trial
Eve Geddie, Amnesty International
In what became known as the “Gezi Park trial”, Kavala was sentenced on April 25, 2022 to life in prison without parole for “attempting to overthrow the government” alongside co-defendants who received 18-year terms for “aiding the attempt to overthrow the government” during protests in 2013. The Turkish authorities should immediately release Osman Kavala and set aside his conviction in line with both Türkiye’s international legal obligations and the Turkish Constitution, the groups said.
“Today, in its latest ruling, the European Court of Human Rights has comprehensively established that Osman Kavala’s detention for almost nine years is based on a politically motivated trial,” said E
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