{"id":463105,"date":"2026-08-25T18:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T16:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/08\/25\/turchia-la-cedu-richiede-il-rilascio-dellattivista-kavala\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T19:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:04:14","slug":"turkey-echr-calls-for-the-release-of-activist-kavala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/08\/25\/turkey-echr-calls-for-the-release-of-activist-kavala\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey: ECHR calls for the release of activist Kavala"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 \u201cKavala\u2019s detention and conviction are in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights\u201d and, for this reason, \u201cTurkey is obliged to release him as soon as possible,” the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled<\/a> today (25 August) regarding the Turkish human rights defender, Mehmet Osman Kavala<\/strong>, who is currently detained in Istanbul. According to the judges, his conviction must be regarded as \u201cnull and void\u201d, thereby removing all \u201cconsequences of the measures taken against him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Born in 1957, Kavala is a businessman who has been involved in establishing several non-governmental organisations and civil society movements, primarily active in human rights and environmental protection. He is suspected of having attempted to overthrow the Turkish government \u201cby force and violence\u201d in connection with the events at<\/strong> Gezi Park<\/a> – a demonstration against the destruction of a park in central Istanbul which escalated into a nationwide protest against the government – between May and September 2013, and of having \u201cattempted to overthrow the constitutional order\u201d during the 2016 coup <\/strong>– when a a faction of the Turkish armed forces attempted to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan \u2013 the activist was \u201cdeprived of his liberty\u201d on 18 October 2017, and has not left prison since. On 25 April 2022, he was also sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The Court stressed that \u201cthe existence of a flagrant denial of justice in respect of Mr Kavala\u201d and \u201cthe ulterior purpose of silencing him\u201d illustrate the presence of a systemic problem in Turkey<\/a><\/strong>. This constitutes \u201ca wider context,
\nmarked by the detention and prosecution of political opponents, human-rights defenders and
\njournalists on the basis of criminal offences, the scope of which was interpreted extensively.\u201d The case revealed \u201cstructural shortcomings which affected the
\nguarantees of independence and impartiality of the judiciary, and which were likely to facilitate the
\nexerting of direct or indirect influence by the executive branch on certain judicial decisions,
\nparticularly in cases with a sensitive political dimension.\u201d An implicit accusation against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, already \u201cknown\u201d for the systematic suppression of dissent, the erosion of the rule of law and the curtailment of fundamental freedoms promoted in his country<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the various breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights identified, today\u2019s judgement includes: a breach of Article 10 (freedom of expression<\/strong>) and Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association<\/strong>), but above all Article 6(1) (right to a fair trial<\/strong>) – regarding to the allegations concerning the independence and impartiality of the courts, the fairness of the proceedings and the restrictions on<\/p>\n

rights of the defence \u2013 and Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment<\/strong>), in relation to the absence of a mechanism for reviewing a sentence of aggravated life imprisonment.<\/p>\n

 This is not the first time the ECHR has ruled on the activist\u2019s case; indeed, today it has confirmed the findings of no fewer than two previous rulings<\/a>. In December 2019, it had ruled<\/a> that his detention violated his right to liberty and that it served the further purpose of silencing him as a human rights defender, ordering his immediate release. In July 2022, it established<\/a> that Turkey had failed to fulfil its obligation to comply with the 2019 judgement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Currently detained in Istanbul, the human rights defender has been in prison since 2017. According to the Court, \u201cstructural shortcomings\u201d undermine the guarantees of independence and impartiality of the Turkish judiciary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":463080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29788],"tags":[32782,35468,35469,31092,28647,35470,35471,35472,35473,26484,26746],"class_list":["post-463105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","tag-convenzione-europea-dei-diritti-delluomo","tag-diritto-a-un-equo-processo","tag-divieto-di-trattamenti-inumani-o-degradanti","tag-european-court-of-human-rights-en","tag-freedom-of-expression-en","tag-gezi-park","tag-liberta-despressione","tag-liberta-di-riunione-e-di-associazione","tag-osman-kavala","tag-turkey-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463106,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463105\/revisions\/463106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}