The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on Tuesday that Turkey had violated multiple provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights in the case of Aysel Tuğluk, a prominent Kurdish politician, the Mezopotamya news agency reported.
Tuğluk the former deputy co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the predecessor of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), was arrested on December 29, 2016, along with seven other Kurdish opposition politicians. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of serving as an executive of a terrorist organization and taking orders from Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Several public speeches she made and her attendance at funerals of PKK fighters were used as evidence against her in court.
Tuğluk denied the accusations, saying she never called for violence and always sought democratic solutions to problems the Kurds faced.
Diagnosed with dementia in 2021, Tuğluk was released on October 27, 2022, due to symptoms of depression and cognitive disorder.
The Strasbourg-based court found that Tuğluk’s detention was not based on a “reasonable suspicion” that she had committed an offense. It concluded that Turkey had violated Articles 5/1 and 5/3 of the convention, which protect the right to liberty and security.
Referring to Tuğluk’s activities and speeches during her 2011–2014 tenure as co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), the court held that they fell within the scope of freedom of expression, ruling that Turkey had also violated Article 10 of the convention. It observed that at the time the DTK was viewed by the government as a legitimate interlocutor, further undermining the government’s justification for criminal prosecution.
The ECtHR also found Turkey in breach of Article 18, which limits the permissible restrictions on rights. The court concluded that Tuğluk’s detention was pursued for an ulterior purpose: to stifle political pluralism and restrict political debate. The court further ruled that the state of emergency declared by Turkey following a coup attempt in July 2016 could not justify restrictions on safeguards to people under detention.
The Turkish government declared a state of emergency in the aftermath of the failed coup on July 15, 2016, that remained in effect until July 19, 2018, and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Over 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, and more than 24,000 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
The court ordered Turkey to pay Tuğluk €16,000 in non-pecuniary damages and €1,500 in legal costs.
