 has ruled that #Turkey violated the rights of prominent Kurdish politicians Gültan Kışanak and Sebahat Tuncel in their 2016 pretrial detention on terrorism-related charges, finding that prosecutors failed to establish reasonable suspicion or provide sufficient grounds to keep them behind bars.){kind=link}
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that Turkey violated the rights of prominent Kurdish politicians Gültan Kışanak and Sebahat Tuncel in their 2016 pretrial detention on terrorism-related charges, finding that prosecutors failed to establish reasonable suspicion or provide sufficient grounds to keep them behind bars.
In a judgment made public on Tuesday, nearly nine years after the two women filed their applications, the Strasbourg court also found that Tuncel’s detention pursued an ulterior purpose, saying it was intended to stifle opposition and restrict freedom of political debate.
Kışanak, a former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), former member of parliament and former mayor of Diyarbakır province, and Tuncel, a former co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and former lawmaker, were arrested in 2016 as part of proceedings linked to the Kobani case.
The case concerns the prosecution of Kurdish politicians over protests that erupted in Turkey in 2014 after Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants besieged the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani. Turkish prosecutors accused HDP figures of inciting violence through political statements and social media posts, while the defendants who also include prominent Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş said the case was politically motivated.
A three-judge committee of the ECtHR found violations of Article 5 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protect the right to liberty and security and require detention to be based on reasonable suspicion and supported by sufficient justification.
The court also ruled that Turkey violated Article 10 of the convention, which protects freedom of expression, finding that the applicants’ speeches and political activities did not justify their detention.
In Tuncel’s case, the court additionally found a violation of Article 18, which prohibits restrictions on rights for purposes other than those prescribed by the convention.
The court said Tuncel’s detention had been used to stifle pluralism and limit freedom of political debate.
The ECtHR awarded each applicant 16,000 euros in nonpecuniary damages.
The court rejected the Turkish government’s argument that the two politicians’ detention was justified by suspicions of membership in an armed terrorist organization.
The Strasbourg court said prosecutors and courts in Turkey had failed to present concrete evidence showing that the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), a pro-Kurdish civil society platform cited in the case file, had been involved in criminal activity.
The court also said the speeches cited against Kışanak and Tuncel were political in nature and did not incite violence.
Kışanak and Tuncel were sentenced on May 16, 2024, to 12 years in prison each on charges of membership in an armed terrorist organization. The court that convicted them ordered their release, taking into account time already served.
The Kobani trial has been widely criticized by opposition politicians and rights groups as part of a broader crackdown on the Kurdish political movement and elected HDP officials. The Turkish government denies that prosecutions are politically motivated and says the judiciary acts independently.