Euro court decides retrial in local court

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decided that the case of Hulki Güneş was not admissible before the ECHR and Güneş could reopen a lawsuit in the Turkish judicial system due to a recently enacted law.

The retrial of Güneş in the Turkish judicial system started in June, even before the ECHR’s decision, as a result of the law which entered into force on April 30, 2013 that paved the way for Güneş’s trial to be reheard.

Güneş, who was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of separatism and undermining national security by the Diyarbakır State Security Court in 1994, was granted the right to take action once again before Turkish courts because of a law that entered into force on April 30, 2013, according to the ECHR decision taken on July 11.

ECHR’s decision reads as follows: “The Court observed that a new law enacted by Turkey on 11 April 2013 allowed the reopening of those cases against Turkey in which the ECHR had found a violation of the Convention and in respect of which execution proceedings had been pending before the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 15 June 2012. Under that law, Mr. Güneş had the possibility to request reopening of the proceedings in his case within three months of its entry into force, that is, from 30 April 2013. The Court therefore considered that the complaint was manifestly ill-founded and declared it inadmissible.”

The ECHR had decided in 2003 that Güneş was exposed to inhuman treatment and the Diyarbakır State Security Court was not independent and impartial during the trial, after Güneş had appealed to the ECHR in 1995. Following this judgment, in 2003 Güneş attempted, without success, to have the proceedings reopened and the final judgment re-examined.

Güneş appealed to the ECHR once again in 2009 citing that the dismissal of his application for reopening of the proceedings was not compatible with the requirements of an article of the European Convention on Human Rights.