Action needed against Turkey for failing to release Osman Kavala, rights organisations tell Council of Europe

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region —  A number of human rights organisations have called on the Council of Europe to take action against Turkey after its failure to abide by an order from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to release jailed activist Osman Kavala. 

Human Rights Watch (HRW), the International Commission of Jurists, and the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project have presented a recommendation to the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers to “review Turkey’s noncompliance” with the Strasbourg court’s order to release human rights activist Kavala, HRW said on Monday.

“Turkey’s flagrant disregard for the European Court of Human Rights order to release Osman Kavala should trigger the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers to start infringement proceedings against Turkey,” senior legal advisor at the HRW, Aisling Reidy said.

The ECHR ordered Kavala’s immediate release in September, but the philanthropist remains in prison.

“This case is part of a systemic practice in which the Turkish courts, which are not independent, apply criminal law and procedures arbitrarily against critics of the government. The action plan needs to address these structural failings in the judicial system,” said Róisín Pillay, Europe and Central Asia director of the International Commission of Jurists.

The US State Department in February called on Ankara to “immediately” release Kavala.

The call angered Ankara. On February 11, Turkey’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hami Aksoy said that judicial procedures against Kavala are “ongoing” and “must be respected,” blasting Washington’s statement as “inconsistent with the rule of law.”

The 63-year-old was acquitted last February in connection with widespread protests that posed the first serious challenge to Erdogan's rule in 2013.

But he was immediately re-arrested and jailed on fresh charges of espionage and involvement in the 2016 coup attempt.

His freedom had been "usurped" by fictitious charges that have kept him in jail without a conviction for more than three years, AFP reported Kavala telling a judge early February.