 has ruled that Turkey violated the rights of Adem Kartal, the former vice president of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors' (HSYK) inspection board, who was removed from his position following the adoption of a law in 2014 and has not been reappointed.){kind=link}
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that Turkey violated the rights of Adem Kartal, the former vice president of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors’ (HSYK) inspection board, who was removed from his position following the adoption of a law in 2014 and has not been reappointed.
Kartal, a judge who was appointed in late 2011 as vice president of the inspection board of the HSYK, later renamed the Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK), was dismissed after the Turkish parliament adopted Law no. 6524, which amended specified legislation, in February 2014.
Section 39 of the law provided that the terms in office of the president and vice president of the inspection board, among others, would end when the law became effective.
Following the law’s entry into force, Kartal’s mandate as vice president of the inspection board was terminated and a new president and vice president were appointed by the head of the HSYK within days.
He was appointed as a public prosecutor at the Supreme Court of Appeals by a decision of the HSYK’s first chamber in March 2014.
Although the Constitutional Court annulled section 39 of the law in April 2014, Kartal was not reappointed to his position.
On July 16, 2016, the day after an attempted coup against the Turkish government, Kartal was suspended as a magistrate and prosecutor at the Supreme Court of Appeals. In August 2016 he was fired by a decision taken by the HSYK as part of measures adopted during the state of emergency declared in the aftermath of the attempted coup. A request that he lodged with the HSYK for the decision to be re-examined was rejected in November 2016.
In October 2017 Kartal was convicted by an Erzurum court of membership in a terrorist organization over his links to the faith-based Gülen movement and sentenced to more than seven years in prison. Following an appeal, the judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals, in October 2020.
Kartal initially filed an individual application with the Constitutional Court, citing his right of access to a court to contest the premature termination of his position on the inspection board, but the court declared it inadmissible.
He then applied to the ECtHR on July 24, 2014, stating that he had not been afforded any effective remedy with regard to his premature termination by Law no. 6524 of his office at the HSYK and that although the relevant provision of the law had been annulled by the Constitutional Court, its judgment had not acknowledged any violation of his right of access to a court.
He complained of a violation of his right of access to a court, under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention on Human Rights.
The Strasbourg court ruled on Tuesday that there has been a violation of Kartal’s right of access to a court, ordering Turkey to pay the applicant 7,800 euros in non-pecuniary damages and 1,767 euros for costs and expenses.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following the abortive putsch in 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.