European rights court rejects Turkish judge's case

STRASBOURG, France (AA) – The European Court of Human Rights on Friday turned back a case brought by a Turkish judge dismissed over alleged terror links following last July’s coup attempt.

Kadriye Catal, a judge at the Ankara Labor Court, was dismissed over links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), said to have orchestrated the attempted coup in which 249 people were martyred and thousands injured.

Catal claimed she did not have access to a court and did not have an effective remedy before a national authority to assert her rights regarding the measure dismissing her.

According to the top European court decision, Catal did not in fact exhaust domestic remedies and she could challenge her dismissal decision before the Turkish Supreme Administrative Court and later, if necessary, before the Constitutional Court.

The court suggested countries might take these kinds of decisions during a state of emergency due to national security concerns, and said domestic legal routes should be tried first.

Turkey declared a three-month state of emergency days after the deadly coup attempt, and has since extended it.

Friday’s ruling is final.