European judges condemn Turkey for violating the rights of freedom of expression, liberty and security of journalist during the 2016 coup d’État.

On 13th April 2021, the judges of the European Court of Human Rights held unanimously that the Turkish government is responsible for breaching several dimensions of articles 5 (right to liberty and security), Article 10 (right to freedom of expression) and Article 18 (limitation on the use of restrictions of rights) against Ahmet Husrev, a journalist, during the coup that hit Turkey in 2016. In the middle of the events in 2016, Ahmed was arrested because he was suspected of collaborating with the Fetullahist Terrorist Organisation/Parallel State Structure that arranged the coup. The European Court concluded that no evidence could attest the involvement of the journalist with the major plan to overthrow the ruling party in Turkey. Therefore, his actions were not suspicious enough to frame him as a collaborator to the criminal offences that took place in 2016. The court added that, once that the defendant did not have access to the case files before his indictment, he only became aware of the charges after it, which, according to the court, compromised his chances to construct a defence and challenge the accusations, which violated his right to a fair trial.

Source: Council of Europe. Available at: https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/coronavirus-exceptional-measures-at-the-european-court-of-human-rights