ECtHR rejects application from Turkish tank commander involved in 2016 coup

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on Thursday rejected all complaints brought by a Turkish tank commander involved in a coup attempt in the country in 2016, deeming them inadmissible.

The abortive putsch on the night of July 15, 2016 killed 251 people and wounded more than a thousand others. It was suppressed overnight.

Mahmut Onur Uçar, who served as the commander of one of the 15 tanks deployed during the coup attempt, was convicted in 2018 of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and causing criminal damage. He was sentenced to aggravated life in addition to nine years.

In his application lodged with the ECtHR the same year, Uçar brought complaints under Articles 6, 3 and 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which concern the right to a fair trial, the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment and the right to liberty and security, respectively.

The Strasbourg court dismissed the complaints, either for being manifestly ill-founded or for not exhausting all the legal avenues available at the national level. The court found no flaws in the Turkish court’s handling of his case, rejecting Uçar’s claims of insufficient evidence, failure to justify his conviction and procedural unfairness.

It ruled that the trial court had thoroughly analyzed the charges and evidence and that the appeals courts had properly assessed the case based on written submissions. Uçar’s complaints regarding a fair trial, ill-treatment and pre-trial detention were also dismissed, as they lacked substantiation or had not been pursued through all available domestic channels.

Although Uçar claimed that he was unaware of the coup and believed he was responding to a terrorist attack while following orders, the court found his actions aligned with the coup plotters’ objectives. The court rejected his arguments, citing evidence such as witness testimony and security footage that demonstrated Uçar and his fellow soldiers actively participated in violent actions against civilians and police.

The tank commander’s case was subsequently appealed in Turkish courts, including the Ankara Regional Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Appeals, which upheld his conviction. In 2023 the Constitutional Court also dismissed his complaint regarding the fairness of the trial, finding that the lower courts’ decisions had neither been arbitrary nor contained any manifest errors of assessment.