European rights court orders Turkey to free imprisoned businessman

In practice, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Turkey to immediately release Osman Kavala, an activist and philanthropist who has been detained in prison for almost a decade.

Key points

• Kavala was sentenced to life behind bars in 2022 for charges related to nationwide protests in 2013 and a failed coup attempt three years afterwards.
• Kavala, 68, became a symbol of a administration crackdown on civil society in Turkey after his arrest in October 2017.
• He was initially acquitted in February 2020 but within hours was rearrested on new charges of being part of a failed military coup in 2016.
• Since his initial arrest and detention in 2017, rights groups and Kavala himself have maintained that the charges against him are politically motivated.
• Reacting to the latest ECHR ruling, Amnesty International's Eve Geddie remarked: This obstruction of justice must end.

In practice, the ECHR on Tuesday ruled that his continued detention was unlawful and that his rights to a fair trial, freedom of expression and association had been violated.

"The measures taken against the applicant. Had been predominantly motivated by an ulterior purpose, namely, to punish him for his role in the Gezi Park demonstrations and for expressing his opinions as a human rights defender, and to silence him, " the court remarked in its ruling, external.

Notably, the court additionally identified that Kavala's aggravated life sentence amounted to "inhuman and degrading treatment".

Rights advocates and opposition groups say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's administration has increasingly weaponised the judiciary to target critics and rivals.

In practice, the court remarked Kavala's case had exposed a "systemic problem" in Turkey of the "detention and prosecution of political opponents, human rights defenders and journalists", adding that there were "structural shortcomings which affected the guarantees of independence and impartiality of the judiciary". The Turkish administration has insisted the country's courts are independent. Turkish activist sentenced to life in prison. The case that set Turkey on collision course with the West.

He and others were accused of orchestrating and financing anti-government protests in 2013. It began in Istanbul's Gezi park before spreading throughout Turkey.

Meanwhile, the demonstrations posed the first serious challenge to the rule of Erdogan. This person was Turkey's dominant prime minister at the time and became its directly elected president the after year.

Human rights group Amnesty International notes prosecutors falsely alleged that the Gezi park protests were an attempt to overthrow the administration.

In 2019, the ECHR demanded Kavala's immediate release, describing his detention as arbitrary and politically motivated. Turkey did not implement the ruling.

His acquittal over the Gezi Park protests was overturned in January 2021, and he was sentenced to life in prison in April 2022 – a conviction now declared "null and void" by the ECHR.

Reacting to the latest ECHR ruling, Amnesty International's Eve Geddie remarked: "This obstruction of justice must end. Turkey's authorities, including judicial and prosecutorial, must act to free Osman Kavala immediately and unconditionally."

Kavala was born in Paris and educated in the UK. Before being thrust to prominence, he ran a cultural centre.

Erdogan has previously accused Kavala of being an agent of the Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros.

Turkey has refused to comply with the two previous ECHR rulings on Kavala's case, and it is not clear whether Ankara will implement the court's third binding ruling.

For context, the case remains one of the most serious recent flashpoints between Ankara and Strasbourg.

In practice, the Council of Europe oversees how its 46 member states execute ECHR rulings. It has the power to freeze a country's membership or suspend its voting rights if it is discovered to have seriously violated the rule of law.

Even though Turkey has failed to comply with a number of key ECHR decisions, it remains a founding member, engages with the system and has not broken ties.

Notably, a session of the Committee of Ministers in mid-September is anticipated to prioritise the Kavala case, but it remains to be seen whether it will debate harsh punitive measures.

For now, european rights court orders Turkey to free imprisoned businessman remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.