Turkey’s Constitutional Court has ruled that a deportation order for an Iranian asylum seeker violated her constitutional protections, ordering authorities to suspend the deportation until all legal proceedings are complete, the Cumhuriyet daily reported on Friday.
The ruling, finalized in December 2024 and published in the Official Gazette on Thursday, found that a lower court had failed to provide effective procedural safeguards. Despite the consistent claims made during interrogation by the asylum seeker — a lawyer and human rights defender described as a woman and identified only by the initials N.S. — that she had been imprisoned for three months in Iran, subjected to torture and later sentenced in absentia to 24 years for protesting her transfer to prison, a local administrative court dismissed her application without conducting a thorough investigation, according to the ruling.
The top court also noted that N.S. had requested a lawyer during her interrogation but was not provided one, which it cited as a serious procedural shortcoming.
N.S. was arrested in November 2020 while attempting to board a flight to Italy using a passport that was not hers, obtained due to her resemblance to the person in the photo. She later applied for international protection and was issued an ID card at a return center. However, the local court rejected her case, prompting an appeal to the Constitutional Court.
The top court stressed that without proper procedures such as thorough documentation, access to legal representation and careful assessment of risks, any deportation would violate constitutional protections. It criticized the lower court for rejecting her claims without adequately examining the documents she had submitted, which included translated Iranian judicial papers describing her alleged conviction.
The court concluded that the deportation order infringed Article 17 of the Turkish Constitution, which guarantees the right to life and protection from cruel or degrading treatment.
Although the applicant had sought 50,000 lira ($1,219) in material damages and 300,000 lira ($7,314) in non-pecuniary damages, the Constitutional Court rejected these compensation claims, ruling that recognition of the rights violation and suspension of the deportation order were sufficient redress. It did, however, order that her legal expenses be reimbursed.