Turkiye denounces Council of Europe for intervening in Kavala case

By Seda Sevencan

ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkiye criticized the Council of Europe on Wednesday for adopting a biased stance in the case of businessman Osman Kavala, saying it interfered in the ongoing independent judicial process.

In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry recalled that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe had adopted a decision on Dec. 2, 2021 and notified Turkiye of the intention of referring the Kavala case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to determine whether Ankara has executed the judgment of Kavala and requested its views on the matter.

“In line with the spirit of cooperation we have displayed so far, our Government shared our views with the Council of Europe on 19 January 2022, in which we explained in detail that the ECHR’s judgment has been executed, that Kavala’s detention was the result of another judicial proceeding, and that the matter should be examined based on legal principles,” the statement added.

“Despite this, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted an interim decision today (2 February 2022) by a majority vote that the case of Kavala be referred to the ECHR. Thereby, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has maintained its stance that interferes with the independence of the judicial proceedings and violated the principle of respect for judicial proceedings,” it underlined.

It pointed out that while there are a large number of judgments that are waiting to be executed by the member states on the agenda of the Committee of Ministers, which supervises the execution of the judgments of the ECHR, constantly bringing the Kavala judgment forward on the agenda is a malicious, intentional and inconsistent approach.

It is obvious that this biased and politically motivated decision, which disregards the domestic proceedings, damages the credibility of the European human rights system, it said.

“Our expectation is that the ECHR assesses this decision on a fair basis; and considering the pending domestic proceedings, does not act as a first instance court; and delivers its judgment in accordance with its case-law and principles, as well as the European Convention on Human Rights,” it noted.

Kavala faced charges over the 2013 Gezi Park protests, a small number of demonstrations in Istanbul, Turkiye that later transformed into nationwide riots which left eight protesters and a police officer dead. He was acquitted of all charges in February 2020, but an appeals court overturned this verdict in January.

He was also accused of involvement in the 2016 defeated coup orchestrated by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) in Turkiye and was remanded into custody on charges of spying in March.