The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled Tuesday that Turkey violated the right to privacy of a former senior judge imprisoned over alleged links to the Gülen movement by recording his conversations with family members during prison visits without assessing whether the surveillance was necessary.
In its ruling the Strasbourg-based court found that authorities at Sincan Prison in Ankara monitored and recorded conversations between Abdi Cengiz, a former member of Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals, and his family for one year without considering his individual circumstances or weighing security concerns against his right to privacy.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted the faith-based Gülen movement, inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who died in 2024, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the probes as a Gülenist conspiracy and designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after a coup attempt in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of orchestrating. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
The court said the surveillance was imposed as part of a general policy covering prisoners convicted of terrorism-related offenses or organized crime, as well as those considered dangerous, without an individualized assessment of whether monitoring was justified.
The judges also criticized Turkish courts for failing to adequately examine Cengiz’s complaints. A court reviewing the prison administration’s decision had merely established that the surveillance was legally authorized, without assessing its necessity, proportionality or duration.
Turkey’s Constitutional Court dismissed his application in April 2022 using standardized reasoning that failed to adequately address his arguments, the ECtHR said.
The seven-judge ECtHR panel unanimously found a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects private and family life and correspondence, and awarded Cengiz 1,500 euros in nonpecuniary damages.
The case stems from a decision by Sincan Prison authorities to monitor conversations during family visits under legislation adopted in June 2021. The law followed an earlier Constitutional Court ruling that found similar prison surveillance practices lacked a legal basis.
Prison authorities announced the monitoring policy in August 2021 and authorized the recording of visits for one year beginning September 16, 2021.
Cengiz challenged the decision, arguing that recording conversations with family members violated his privacy and the confidentiality of his communications. He also sought information about who could access the recordings and how authorities would prevent their use for unauthorized purposes.
His complaints were rejected by prison authorities and domestic courts before he brought the case to the ECtHR in May 2022.
The Turkish government argued that the monitoring pursued legitimate security objectives and complied with domestic law. It also said the surveillance had ended and the recordings had been deleted after one year.
The government separately maintained that Cengiz’s conversations had not actually been recorded, an argument the ECtHR rejected after examining official documents confirming that the recordings had taken place.
The court acknowledged that Turkish legislation permitted the monitoring and that maintaining prison security was a legitimate objective. However, it found that the authorities had failed to demonstrate that the surveillance was necessary in Cengiz’s case.
It also said ending the monitoring and deleting the recordings did not remedy the violation because Turkish authorities had neither acknowledged the infringement of his rights nor provided compensation.
Cengiz was among the judges dismissed from their positions during a sweeping crackdown on the judiciary following the failed coup in July 2016. He was taken into custody and put in pretrial detention over alleged membership in the Gülen movement.
Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency (OHAL) that remained in effect until July 19, 2018. During this period, the government carried out a purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight by issuing a number of government decrees, known as KHKs. A total of 113,290 civil servants and 4,006 judges and prosecutors were dismissed over alleged links to terrorist organizations, while more than 26,206 members of the armed forces were expelled from the military for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
Cengiz was sentenced to 11 years in prison in February 2019 on charges of membership in the movement. Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld his conviction in January 2020.
During his trial, prosecutors accused Cengiz of using ByLock, an encrypted messaging application Turkish authorities associate with the movement, and attending meetings linked to the group. Cengiz denied the allegations, including claims that he used the application, and requested his acquittal.
Although the ECtHR has in many cases made clear that use of the ByLock messaging app does not constitute a criminal offense, detentions and arrests of individuals continue in Turkey for their alleged use of the ByLock application.
The ECtHR ruling concerned the recording of Cengiz’s prison visits and did not address the legality of his conviction.
The judgment is not yet final. Both parties have three months to request that the case be referred to the court’s Grand Chamber.
