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The Turkish government has sent two officials accused of ill-treatment and involvement in extraordinary renditions to the 80th session of the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT).
The session, during which Turkey’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture is under review, is being held from July 8 to July 26 in Geneva.
Turkey’s former ambassador to Kosovo, Kıvılcım Kılıç is the head of the Turkish delegation at the session. She was implicated in coordinating the illegal rendition of six Turkish nationals from Kosovo in 2018.
Among those who were deported to Turkey in March 2018 were five teachers and a cardiology professor. They all had residence and work permits in the country and were working for a Gülen-linked school in Kosovo.
The six men were arrested at Turkey’s request over alleged links to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, and forcibly transported to Turkey.
The two countries’ intelligence operatives and the Turkish Embassy in Pristina were reportedly involved in the operation, which prompted reactions from the European Union and rights groups.
The Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement of masterminding a failed coup in July 2016 and labels it as a terrorist organization. The movement strongly denies any involvement in the failed putsch or terrorist activity.
Driton Gashi, the head of Kosovo’s intelligence agency, had been dismissed from his job following the illegal deportation of the Turkish nationals. The then-prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj, claimed the incident had taken place without his knowledge.
In addition to Gashi, two other individuals — Valon Krasniqi, former director of the Department of Citizenship and Migration at the Interior Ministry, and Rrahman Sylejmani, former head of the Directorate of Migration and Foreigners in the Kosovo Border Police, who stood trial in the same case — have been acquitted of the charges of “abuse of official position or authority” and “illegal deprivation of liberty” because the charges against them could not be proved.
The six men, who were charged with “espionage” and “serving as executives of an armed terrorist organization” in Turkey, were handed down sentences of various lengths and are still in prison.
A report produced by the investigative committee of the Kosovar parliament at the time revealed that the expulsions constituted at least 31 violations of the country’s constitution and laws as well as violating the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Kosovo is a signatory.
Police chief Rüştü Yılmaz is also representing Turkey at the session. He has been accused of overseeing torture in police detention centers during his tenure as head of the police intelligence unit in Turkey’s southeastern Şanlıurfa province.
The Geneva-based Security Studies and Rule of Law Association (SRL) has called for urgent action against Kılıç and Yılmaz, submitting a petition to the UN. SRL detailed Yılmaz’s alleged negligence in a 2015 bombing by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which killed 34 people, and his involvement in torturing detainees after the coup attempt in 2016.
UN rapporteur Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov revealed yesterday that the Turkish government misused a European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decision to justify routine strip-searches in prisons. Turkey selectively cited an ECtHR ruling on strip-searches for security, omitting the court’s conclusion that weekly strip-searches constituted inhuman treatment, violating Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The CAT session reviews reports from over 40 civil society organizations detailing systematic torture, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and impunity in Turkey. Tuzmukhamedov criticized Turkey’s prolonged detention practices and the continuing state of emergency laws enacted after the 2016 coup attempt that have become permanent.
The rapporteur also highlighted the wrongful detention of Aydın Sefa Akay, a former UN judge, after the coup attempt in 2016. The ECtHR ruled that Turkey violated Akay’s rights, awarding him compensation. This case underscores the broader crackdown on the judiciary in Turkey, where over 4,000 judges and prosecutors were dismissed after the coup attempt.
Human rights groups have documented hundreds of torture complaints from Turkish detention centers. Earlier this year, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) expressed concern over the increase in alleged torture incidents in Turkey since the coup attempt.
The UN session emphasizes the need for Turkey to align its laws with international standards and address the systematic issues highlighted by civil society reports. The rapporteurs called for comprehensive legislative and judicial reform, stressing the importance of independent oversight and effective investigation mechanisms to combat torture and ill-treatment.
After the attempted coup in 2016, ill-treatment and torture became widespread and systematic in Turkish detention centers. Lack of condemnation from higher officials and a readiness to cover up allegations rather than investigate them have resulted in widespread impunity for the security forces.