Overview
- The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that Osman Kavala’s conviction must be regarded as null and void and called for his immediate release after finding violations of his rights to liberty, fair trial, free speech and peaceful assembly.
- The court said the case revealed structural shortcomings in Türkiye’s judiciary that made it susceptible to direct or indirect executive influence and noted that domestic disciplinary actions against judges undermined trial impartiality.
- Kavala was first detained in 2017, briefly acquitted in 2020 before being rearrested, and was sentenced in April 2022 to aggravated life imprisonment on charges tied to the 2013 Gezi protests and the 2016 coup attempt.
- Ankara has previously refused to implement earlier ECHR rulings and President Erdoğan has rejected the court’s findings, while the Council of Europe opened rare infringement proceedings in 2022 and faces choices over potential sanctions.
- Rights groups and Western governments say the case is a litmus test for the European human‑rights system because the Committee of Ministers must now decide how to enforce the ruling and what consequences to impose if Türkiye again refuses to comply.