Turkey is not going to respect the Council of Europe if it doesn’t respect Turkish courts, President Tayyip Erdogan mentioned on Thursday, when requested a few resolution to refer the case towards philanthropist Osman Kavala again to a high European court docket.
Kavala, considered one of Turkey’s highest-profile detainees, has been held for greater than 4 years with out a conviction.
The European Court docket of Human Rights (ECHR) dominated greater than two years in the past that Kavala must be launched instantly and mentioned his detention served to silence him, however Turkey has not carried out the ruling.
The Council mentioned on Thursday that its committee had referred the case to the ECHR to find out whether or not Turkey has failed to satisfy its obligation to implement the court docket’s judgment in step with the European Conference on Human Rights.
The referral to the ECHR is the following step in “infringement proceedings” that might lead to Turkey’s suspension from the Council of Europe, of which it’s a founding member.
“The Committee discovered that, by failing to make sure Mr Kavala’s fast launch, Turkey is refusing to abide by the Court docket’s last judgment in his case,” it mentioned in an announcement.
At a information convention, Erdogan mentioned Turkey is not going to recognise those that don’t recognise its courts.
“What the ECHR has mentioned, what the Council of Europe says, this doesn’t concern us a lot as a result of we count on our courts to be revered,” he mentioned.
“To those that don’t present this respect: excuse us, however we could have no respect for them both,” Erdogan added.
The international ministry mentioned on Wednesday Turkey had carried out the ECHR ruling and that Kavala was detained for a unique judicial continuing.
Kavala was acquitted in 2020 of prices associated to 2013 nationwide protests. Hours later, one other court docket ordered his arrest based mostly on a cost of trying to overthrow the constitutional order associated to the 2016 coup try, which the ECHR had additionally mentioned lacked foundation.
That court docket later dominated to launch him on that cost however ordered his detention on an espionage cost in the identical case, a transfer critics mentioned was geared toward circumventing the ECHR ruling.
(Reuters)