Turkey slams Council of Europe for intervening in ongoing Kavala case

ANKARA

Ankara has accused the Council of Europe of interfering in an ongoing judicial process on businessman Osman Kavala after the body’s political organ voted in favor of moving the infringement procedure against Turkey forward.

The Committee of Ministers by a majority vote on Feb. 2 in Strasbourg decided to ask the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) whether Turkey infringed the European Convention on Human Rights by not implementing the court’s verdict on Kavala.

The ECHR had ruled that Kavala’s rights were breached in late 2019 and asked Turkey to release the civil society activist and businessman who has been behind bars since 2017.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry, in a written statement on Feb. 2, reacted against the vote result and recalled that the Turkish judiciary had actually implemented the court’s ruling but Kavala is still in prison because of other charges.

“The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe continued its approach, which is an intervention in the ongoing independent judicial process in our country, and violated the principle of respect for the judicial process,” read the statement.

It also described the Committee of Ministers’ effort to keep Kavala case on the agenda while there are so many other cases pending before the body as not a sign of a good-will, deliberate and inconsistent.

“It is obvious that this biased decision taken with political motives, disregarding the ongoing court case process in domestic law, has damaged the reputation of the European human rights system. In order to ensure the effectiveness of the Council of Europe human rights system, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe must abandon its partisan and selective approach,” said the ministry.