Turkey’s Defiance of the Human Rights Court Puts Europe to the Test

The case against Kavala, a centerpiece of the state’s aggressive judiciary, highlights a broader erosion of legal norms. Despite being acquitted in 2020, he was immediately re-arrested on recycled charges and sentenced to life without parole. His experience mirrors the plight of figures like Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, who remain behind bars despite clear mandates from Strasbourg for their release. These detentions are not isolated incidents but symptoms of an institutionalized strategy to silence political dissent and dismantle civil society.

Since the 2016 coup attempt, Ankara has weaponized the legal system, transforming emergency-era provisions into permanent, repressive law. The scale of this crackdown is vast: Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu currently faces a staggering 2,352-year prison sentence, while hundreds of activists, lawyers, and journalists continue to navigate a landscape of arbitrary bans and mass detentions. Even the Saturday Mothers, who seek justice for historical disappearances, face ongoing criminalization for their peaceful vigils.

This cycle of non-compliance forces a confrontation for the Council of Europe. Its committee of ministers, responsible for enforcing judicial decisions, has repeatedly called for Kavala’s freedom without success. By failing to secure the implementation of these rulings, the Council risks signaling that its own authority is optional. For the European human rights system, Kavala’s continued incarceration is no longer just a Turkish legal matter; it is a fundamental challenge to the integrity of the entire Convention framework.