The European Court of Human Rights has rejected the Government’s case that fourteen men interned in Northern Ireland in the 1970s were subjected to torture.

The court ruled in 1978 the treatment of the so-called “hooded men” had amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment, but not torture.

A revised ruling in the case taken by Ireland against the UK was sought in 2014 on the basis of new information disclosed by RTÉ which the Government argued was not available to the court at the time of the original decision.

Ireland argued that new documents showed that the UK knew of the long-term effects the interrogation techniques used on the men would have.

However, in a ruling this morning the Strasbourg-based court that oversees the implementation of the European Convention of Human Rights, rejected the Government’s application for a revised decision.

It expressed doubt that the documents submitted supported the argument that a witness for the UK government had given misleading evidence as to the effect of the five interrogation techniques used on the fourteen men.

It also said that the evidence may not have had a “decisive influence” on the court’s original decision that the interrogation techniques constituted “a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment a breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights” but did not constitute a practice of torture within the meaning of the provision.

“The court expresses doubts whether the documents submitted by the applicant Government in support of the first ground of revision contain sufficient prima facie evidence of the alleged new fact and considers that the documents submitted in support of the second ground did not demonstrate facts which were “unknown” to the Court when it delivered the original judgment.”

“Even assuming that the documents submitted in support of the first ground for revision demonstrate the fact alleged, namely that Dr L. misled the Commission as regards the effects of the five [interrogation]techniques, the court considers that it cannot be said that it might have had a decisive influence on the court’s finding in the original judgment that the use of the five techniques constituted a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment in breach of Article 3 of the Convention but did not constitute a practice of torture within the meaning of that provision.

“The applicant Government’s request for revision must therefore be dismissed,” the court said. It dismissed the request by six votes to one.

A dissenting opinion was issued by the Irish judge, Síofra O’Leary.

The seven-judge Chamber also included a judge from the UK, Lord Reed, who agreed with the majority decision. A referral to the 17-judge Grand Chamber is possible. A request for such a move would be considered by a panel of the Grand Chamber.

The decision is a major blow to the surviving members of the group and their families of those who have since died. A press conference is due to be held in Belfast later this morning.

The five interrogation techniques used against by the men by the British army were prolonged standing against a wall, hooding, subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, and deprivation of food and drink

An initial report on the case was issued by the European Commission of Human Rights in 1976 and found that the men had been tortured. The Commission was a body which dealt with cases before they went to the Strasbourg court. It issued reports,establishing the facts and expressing opinions, and could refer cases to the court.

Ireland asked for a referral to the Strasbourg court itself for a ruling. It was the first time a government took another government before the court.

The court came to a different conclusion than the Commission on the question of torture, finding that there had been inhuman and degrading treatment rather than torture. The Commission no longer exists.

Amnesty has said the 1978 finding has had disastrous consequences and has been used by the UK and the US to justify harsh interrogation techniques it operated.

In its original judgment the Strasbourg court said it appeared to have been the intention of the European Convention on Human Rights to attach a special stigma to “torture” and to distinguish between it and “inhuman or degrading treatment”.

“Torture” was understood to mean “deliberate inhuman treatment causing very serious and cruel suffering”.

The Strasbourg court has since made torture findings against Turkey (1996 and 1996), Russia and Ukraine (both 2011) and France (1999).

In the ruling against France the court said that as the Convention was a living instrument, treatment which had in the past been considered as “inhuman and degrading treatment” as opposed to “torture” could be classified differently in future.

It noted that an “increasingly high standard” in the area of the protection of human rights inevitably required “greater firmness in assessing breaches of the fundamental values of democratic societies”.</s>Geneva (AFP) - Turkey's state of emergency has sparked human rights abuses against "hundreds of thousands of people", including killings and torture, the UN warned Tuesday in a report slammed by Ankara as "biased" and "unacceptable".

A state of emergency imposed in Turkey following the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016, and repeatedly extended since then, has had dramatic consequences, the UN rights office said.

The report, which covers all of 2017, cautioned that the extraordinary powers handed to the authorities following the failed coup attempt had caused "a continued erosion of the rule of law and deterioration of the human rights situation."

"Routine extensions of the state of emergency in Turkey have led to profound human rights violations against hundreds of thousands of people," it said.

It warned that the use of emergency powers appeared to be meant "to stifle any form of criticism or dissent vis-a-vis the government."

UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein described the findings as "alarming" and "outrageous".

"The numbers are just staggering: nearly 160,000 people arrested during an 18-month state of emergency," he said in a statement.

In addition, he pointed to the "152,000 civil servants dismissed, many totally arbitrarily, teachers, judges and lawyers dismissed or prosecuted, journalists arrested, media outlets shut down and websites blocked."

"Clearly the successive states of emergency declared in Turkey have been used to severely and arbitrarily curtail the human rights of a very large number of people," he said.

Turkey reacted furiously, with the foreign ministry accusing the UN rights chief of turning his agency into an organisation that collaborates with "terror" groups.

Turkey insists it is dealing with multiple terror threats including the movement led by the US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Ankara accuses him of ordering the attempted putsch. Gulen denies the charges.

The report, "which contains distorted, biased and false information, is unacceptable for Turkey," it said.

Tuesday's report also decried a massive post-coup crackdown on the media, finding that some 300 journalists had been arrested.

Around 100,000 websites were reportedly blocked in Turkey last year, it said.

The European Court of Human Rights also took Turkey to task Tuesday over its media crackdown, ruling that Ankara had abused the rights of two journalists, Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay.

The two were arrested in 2016 and accused of being members of a "terror organisation" run by Gulen.

Altan, an economics professor and journalist, was handed a life sentence in February for his alleged Gulenist links. Prominent columnist Alpay is awaiting trial.

Tuesday's UN report documented the use of torture and other abuse in custody, listing severe beatings, sexual assault, electric shocks and waterboarding.

"One of the most alarming findings of the report," Zeid said, "is how Turkish authorities reportedly detained some 100 women who were pregnant or had just given birth, mostly on the grounds that they were 'associates' of their husbands, who are suspected of being connected to terrorist organisations."

"Some were detained with their children and others violently separated from them. This is simply outrageous, utterly cruel and surely cannot have anything whatsoever to do with making the country safer," he said.

The report listed a case where a "woman who was shackled by her legs immediately after her miscarriage," and another where a mother was separated from her prematurely-born baby and taken to prison more than 600 kilometres away.

It described the April 2017 referendum that extended Erdogan's executive powers as "seriously problematic".

It noted that the move had led to interference with the work of the judiciary and curtailment of parliamentary oversight over the executive branch.

The rights office also pointed out that 22 emergency decrees were promulgated by the end of 2017, with two more since then, often "regulating matters unrelated to the state of emergency and used to limit various legitimate activities by civil society actors."

This, the report cautioned, fosters "impunity", by handing immunity to authorities acting within the framework of the decrees.

The report urged Turkey to "promptly end the state of emergency and restore the normal functioning of institutions and the rule of law."</s>Turkey's state of emergency has sparked human rights abuses against "hundreds of thousands of people", including killings and torture, the UN warned Tuesday in a report slammed by Ankara as "biased" and "unacceptable".

A state of emergency imposed in Turkey following the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016, and repeatedly extended since then, has had dramatic consequences, the UN rights office said.

The report, which covers all of 2017, cautioned that the extraordinary powers handed to the authorities following the failed coup attempt had caused "a continued erosion of the rule of law and deterioration of the human rights situation."

"Routine extensions of the state of emergency in Turkey have led to profound human rights violations against hundreds of thousands of people," it said.

It warned that the use of emergency powers appeared to be meant "to stifle any form of criticism or dissent vis-a-vis the government."

UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein described the findings as "alarming" and "outrageous".

"The numbers are just staggering: nearly 160,000 people arrested during an 18-month state of emergency," he said in a statement.

In addition, he pointed to the "152,000 civil servants dismissed, many totally arbitrarily, teachers, judges and lawyers dismissed or prosecuted, journalists arrested, media outlets shut down and websites blocked."

"Clearly the successive states of emergency declared in Turkey have been used to severely and arbitrarily curtail the human rights of a very large number of people," he said.

Turkey reacted furiously, with the foreign ministry accusing the UN rights chief of turning his agency into an organisation that collaborates with "terror" groups.

Turkey insists it is dealing with multiple terror threats including the movement led by the US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Ankara accuses him of ordering the attempted putsch. Gulen denies the charges.

The report, "which contains distorted, biased and false information, is unacceptable for Turkey," it said.

Tuesday's report also decried a massive post-coup crackdown on the media, finding that some 300 journalists had been arrested.

Around 100,000 websites were reportedly blocked in Turkey last year, it said.

The European Court of Human Rights also took Turkey to task Tuesday over its media crackdown, ruling that Ankara had abused the rights of two journalists, Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay.

The two were arrested in 2016 and accused of being members of a "terror organisation" run by Gulen.

Altan, an economics professor and journalist, was handed a life sentence in February for his alleged Gulenist links. Prominent columnist Alpay is awaiting trial.

Tuesday's UN report documented the use of torture and other abuse in custody, listing severe beatings, sexual assault, electric shocks and waterboarding.

"One of the most alarming findings of the report," Zeid said, "is how Turkish authorities reportedly detained some 100 women who were pregnant or had just given birth, mostly on the grounds that they were 'associates' of their husbands, who are suspected of being connected to terrorist organisations."

"Some were detained with their children and others violently separated from them. This is simply outrageous, utterly cruel and surely cannot have anything whatsoever to do with making the country safer," he said.

The report listed a case where a "woman who was shackled by her legs immediately after her miscarriage," and another where a mother was separated from her prematurely-born baby and taken to prison more than 600 kilometres away.

It described the April 2017 referendum that extended Erdogan's executive powers as "seriously problematic".

It noted that the move had led to interference with the work of the judiciary and curtailment of parliamentary oversight over the executive branch.

The rights office also pointed out that 22 emergency decrees were promulgated by the end of 2017, with two more since then, often "regulating matters unrelated to the state of emergency and used to limit various legitimate activities by civil society actors."

This, the report cautioned, fosters "impunity", by handing immunity to authorities acting within the framework of the decrees.

The report urged Turkey to "promptly end the state of emergency and restore the normal functioning of institutions and the rule of law."</s>This statement was originally published on platform24.org on 20 March 2018. 

 

In its long-awaited judgment, ECtHR says right to personal liberty and security and freedom of expression have been violated. 

 

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced on 20 March 2018 long-awaited judgments on applications filed on behalf of Turkish journalists Şahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan, who were imprisoned following a failed coup attempt in 2016. 

 

The Strasbourg court found that there had been a violation of personal liberty and security under Article 5/1 of the European Convention of Human Rights and of freedom of expression under Article 10. 

 

The ECtHR said there was no need to examine separately the complaint under Article 18 of the Convention, under which both Altan and Alpay complained that they had been detained for expressing critical opinions about the government authorities. 

 

In its judgment on Alpay, the European court also urged Turkey to take necessary measures "to ensure the termination of Mr. Alpay's pre-trial detention at the earliest possible date" under Article 46 of the Convention, which concerns binding force and execution of the ECtHR judgments. 

 

The court did not make a similar call for Altan's release. In Altan's application, the court said the period taken into consideration began on 22 September 2016, when he was placed in pre-trial detention, and ended on 16 February 2018, when he was convicted by the Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court. 

 

"From that date onwards, his deprivation of liberty has been covered by Article 5 § 1 (a) of the Convention and falls outside the scope of this application," the court said. The said paragraph of Article 5 refers to "the lawful detention of a person after conviction by a competent court." 

 

The ECtHR also held that Turkey was to pay Alpay 21,500 euros in respect of non-pecuniary damage.

Altan, an economist and a columnist, and Alpay, a former columnist for the shuttered Zaman newspaper, were arrested in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt of 15 July 2016. Altan, who was on trial along with his brother, Ahmet Altan, journalist Nazlı Ilıcak and others, was handed down an aggravated life sentence on 16 February, at the end of his trial, for "attempting to overthrow the constitutional order." 

 

74-year-old Alpay, whose trial on the charges of "attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, the government and Parliament" is still ongoing, was released from Silivri Prison just days before the European court ruling, in the early hours of 17 March, after a second ruling by the Constitutional Court against his pre-trial detention. He had been incarcerated as part of the trial for nearly 20 months. 

 

The European Court of Human Rights rulings come in the wake of Constitutional Court decisions on 11 January, which similarly found that Alpay and Altan's rights to individual liberty and security and freedom of expression had been violated as a result of their pre-trial detention. But the lower courts refused to implement the Constitutional Court rulings, saying the top court overstepped its jurisdiction by examining evidence included in the case file. 

 

On 16 March, the Constitutional Court issued a second ruling in Alpay's case filed after the lower courts refused to release him in line with the first Constitutional Court ruling, this time openly urging the trial court to release Alpay to remedy the violation.

In its judgments, the ECtHR also said Altan's continued pre-trial detention and the fact that Alpay had been kept in pre-trial detention even after the Constitutional Court's judgment “raised serious doubts as to the effectiveness of the remedy of an individual application to the Constitutional Court in cases concerning pre-trial detention" and added that it was up to the government to prove that this remedy is effective, in theory and in practice. 

 

It said it would continue to view individual applications to the Constitutional Court constituted an effective remedy but indicated it would be monitoring the system to see if the Constitutional Court rulings are implemented by penal courts. 

 

"The Court would emphasise that the applicant's continued pre-trial detention, even after the Constitutional Court's judgment, as a result of the decisions delivered by the Istanbul 26th Assize Court, raises serious doubts as to the effectiveness of the remedy of an individual application to the Constitutional Court in cases concerning pre-trial detention. However, as matters stand, the Court will not depart from its previous finding that the right to lodge an individual application with the Constitutional Court constitutes an effective remedy in respect of complaints by persons deprived of their liberty under Article 19 of the Constitution. Nevertheless, it reserves the right to examine the effectiveness of the system of individual applications to the Constitutional Court in relation to applications under Article 5 of the Convention, especially in view of any subsequent developments in the case-law of the first-instance courts, in particular the assize courts, regarding the authority of the Constitutional Court's judgments. In that regard, it will be for the Government to prove that this remedy is effective, both in theory and in practice," the court said.

Following the European Court of Human Rights ruling, Altan's lawyers applied to the government to request his release. In a petition presented to the Justice Ministry, lawyers Ergin Cinmen and Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu said it was confirmed by the ECtHR that Altan's right to liberty and security and freedom of expression had been violated. 

 

Noting that the failure to implement the first Constitutional Court ruling of 11 January was explicitly criticized in the ECtHR judgment, the lawyers said the judgment made it clear that remedying violations would only be possible through Altan's release. 

 

Full text of the petition submitted to the Justice Ministry (in Turkish) can be read here.

The ECtHR has admitted applications of a total of 10 journalists from Turkey who were arrested and then placed in pre-trial detention following the 2016 coup attempt. 

 

The court is expected to announce its judgments on the remaining applications soon. The other applicants include Ahmet Altan, Cumhuriyet reporter Ahmet Şık, Cumhuriyet Executive Board Chairman Akın Atalay, former singer and columnist Atilla Taş and veteran journalist Nazlı Ilıcak. 

 

The ECtHR's full judgment on Mehmet Altan's application can be viewed here. To read the court's judgment on Şahin Alpay, click here.</s>Turkey acted illegally by detaining two prominent journalists who were arrested in the wake of the military coup attempt in July 2016, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled.

It is the first judgement by the Strasbourg court relating to the situation facing journalists in the country, which imprisons more media workers than any other in the world – according to one campaign group.

The ECHR found that in the cases of journalists Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay there had been violations of the right to liberty and security, and of the right to freedom of expression.

The pair are just two of hundreds of journalists arrested during a wave of detentions following the failed coup in July 2016.

74-year-old Alpay was a columnist for the daily newspaper Zaman, which was shut down following a decree by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan five days after the attempted military takeover. Last weekend a court ordered his release under house arrest after more than a year in detention.

Altan, an economics teacher and journalist who presented a political TV programme, was sentenced to life in prison in February for belonging to a terrorist organisation, due to alleged ties to the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Five other journalists including Altan’s brother received the same sentence.

The verdict drew fierce criticism from human rights groups and Western countries. Ankara accuses Gulen of orchestrating the failed coup, a charge he denies.

'No factual basis' for guilt

The ECHR’s decision said “the investigating authorities had been unable to demonstrate any factual basis” to determine the journalists’ guilt. The court said Turkey should pay both men 21,500 euros in damages. One Turkish judge issued a partly dissenting opinion, challenging the court’s jurisdiction.

The European court’s rulings follow decisions by Turkey’s Constitutional Court, which also found the journalists’ rights had been violated. But the lower courts refused to implement them, saying the top court had overstepped its jurisdiction.

The European Court of Human Rights is recognised by all 47 member states of the Council of Europe – including Turkey and all European Union countries. However, it is strictly a European, not an EU, body.

Nearly 250 journalists and media workers are in jail in Turkey, most in pretrial detention, according to the Stockholm Center for Freedom – a human rights organisation set up by journalists, with a special focus on Turkey.

International pressure has forced some cases to be reconsidered. Last month German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel returned to Berlin after being jailed without charge for over a year in Turkey.

'Profound human rights abuses'

The United Nations said on Tuesday that Turkey had committed “profound human rights abuses against hundreds of thousands of people”, including torture and arbitrary detentions. accusing Ankara of extending the state of emergency, brought in after the coup, to crack down on opposition.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said nearly 160,000 people had been arrested and 152,000 civil servants sacked – “many totally arbitrarily” – in the past 18 months, describing the numbers as “just staggering”.

The UN’s 28-page report says “massive and serious” human rights violations continue to be committed by Turkish security forces in the southeast of the country.

The Turkish government has dismissed the report. Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said the text ignored “the severe and multiple terrorist threats faced by Turkey”, accusing the High Commissioner of having “lost his objectivity and impartiality” and of having “developed prejudices against our country”.</s>ISTANBUL - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday that the rights of two prominent journalists had been violated during their pre-trial detention for over a year.



The case of two journalists, Sahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan, was taken to Turkey's Constitutional Court which ruled in January that they both be released, but a lower court threw out the decision.



Altan, along with five other journalists, was jailed for life in February, while Alpay was released under house arrest on Saturday after more than a year in detention.



The European court ruled that during their pre-trial detention their rights to liberty, security and freedom of expression had been violated.



It also said that their continued detention after the Constitutional Court ruling "could not be regarded as lawful and in accordance with a procedure prescribed by law as required by the right to liberty and security".



A Turkish penal court last week ordered the release of Alpay, a columnist in the now defunct Zaman daily, following a second ruling by the constitutional court.



In February, Altan and five other journalists including his brother were sentenced to life in jail for links to a failed military coup in July 2016.



The verdict of the internationally monitored case drew fierce criticism from rights groups and Turkey's Western allies, who said Turkey should reverse the decision.</s>The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday that the rights of two prominent journalists had been violated during their pre-trial detention for over a year. The case of Sahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan was taken to Turkey’s Constitutional Court, which ruled in January that both should be released, but a lower court threw out the decision. Altan, along with five other journalists, was jailed for life in February for “links to a failed military coup in July 2016.” Alpay was released under house arrest on Saturday after more than a year in detention, Reuters reports. The ECHR said that their rights to liberty, security and freedom of expression had been violated during their pre-trial detention. Rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies had said Ankara should reverse the decision on the journalists.</s>The journalists, Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay, were among those arrested in the wake of the failed July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday condemned Turkey over the detention of two journalists, citing violations of their rights to liberty, security and freedom of expression.

The journalists, Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay, were among those arrested in the wake of the failed July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The court ordered Turkey to pay each man 21,500 euros ($26,500).

“The court found in particular that Mr Alpay’s continued pre-trial detention… could not be regarded as ‘lawful’ and ‘in accordance with a procedure prescribed by law’, it said in a statement.

Alpay was released last week, though a court ruled he must remain in his house and is forbidden from leaving Turkey, state news agency Anadolu reported.

Altan was handed a life sentence in February on charges of links to the group blamed for the failed coup, along with his brother Ahmet, also a writer, and veteran journalist Nazli Ilicak.

The European court said his detention, “following his expression of his opinions, constituted a severe measure that could not be regarded as a necessary and proportionate interference in a democratic society.”</s>The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that Turkey abused the rights of two journalists detained in a massive post-coup crackdown in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands accused of muzzling the press.

The journalists, Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay, were arrested in 2016 and accused of being members of a "terror organisation" run by Fethullah Gulen, the US-based preacher Erdogan blames for the attempted coup against him in July 2016.

The court ruled that Turkey had abused the men's rights to liberty, security and freedom of expression by detaining them and ordered the state to pay each of them 21,500 euros ($26,500).

Turkish authorities have arrested 55,000 people accused of links to Gulen, with 153 journalists behind bars according to the P24 press freedom group, mostly detained under the post-coup state of emergency.

More than 140,000 people including judges and academics have been sacked or suspended on accusations of supporting Gulen in the crackdown that has sparked heavy criticism from the West.

Altan, an economics professor and journalist, was handed a life sentence in February for his alleged Gulenist links, while prominent columnist Alpay is awaiting trial.

Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled in January that both men should be released on the grounds that their rights had been violated, but lower criminal courts defied the ruling and they were kept behind bars.

On Friday, an Istanbul court ruled that Alpay could be released but confined to his house and forbidden from leaving Turkey.

The European court said in its judgement that Alpay's pre-trial detention "could not be regarded as 'lawful'" and ordered Turkish authorities to release him as soon as possible.

Their cases have amplified concerns in Turkey about the rule of law under the crackdown, which Ankara says is needed to eradicate Gulen's influence.

Critics, however, say the crackdown has included anyone who dares to criticise Erdogan.

The court said in both rulings that "criticism of governments... should not attract criminal charges for particularly serious offences such as belonging to or assisting a terrorist organisation".

The court covers allegations of rights abuses by any of the 47 governments signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights. Turkey ratified the convention in 1954 and is obliged to implement its judgements.

The court has seen a vast increase in its caseload over alleged rights abuses since the coup -- dealing with more than 31,000 applications in 2017 compared to 4,160 a year earlier.

Some 30,000 of the cases were struck out, according to ECHR figures.</s>(CN) – Reminding Turkey that “democracy thrives on freedom of expression,” the European Court of Human Rights criticized the prosecution Tuesday of prominent journalists Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay.

In a 6-1 ruling this morning, the court slapped Turkey with fines for trampling upon the reporters’ rights to liberty, security and expression, but stopped short of finding the Turkish judiciary unfit to protect the freedoms of subjected to a government purge.

Altan and Alpay’s arrests followed a failed coup attempt in July 2016, which Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed on the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Roundly denounced by human-rights and press-freedom monitors, the cases against Altan and Alpay accused the pair of attempting to topple the Turkish government on Gulen’s behalf.

Ultimately a judge gave Altan an aggravated life sentence for “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.” Alpay awaits a verdict on similar charges.

The European Court of Human Rights meanwhile denounced Turkey’s anti-press clampdown Tuesday in separate rulings for Altan and Alpay.

Quoting the U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of expression, the majority noted that “anti-terrorism legislation had long been used in Turkey against journalists expressing critical opinions about government policies.”

“Nevertheless, since the declaration of the state of emergency, the right to freedom of expression had been weakened even further,” Judge Robert Spano wrote for the panel. “Since 15 July 2016, 231 journalists had been arrested and more than 150 remained in prison.”

Awarding both men more than $26,400 in damages, the court directed Turkey to immediately terminate the pretrial detention of Alpay, who was released and put on house arrest last week in anticipation of today’s ruling.

The cases against Altan and Alpay were rife with irregularities. At different stages, Turkey’s highest court ordered both men to be released, only to be overruled by trial judges in Istanbul. Alpay was finally released pending trial the second time the constitutional court intervened on his behalf, but Altan remains locked up inside Istanbul’s Silivri prison.

Attorneys for Alpay and Altan argued that the lower courts’ defiance of those rulings proved the Turkish judiciary did not provide effective remedies for rights violations.

But the European court did not go as far Tuesday as to find Turkey’s judicial order wholly ineffective.

“Nevertheless, it reserves the right to examine the effectiveness of the system of individual applications to the Constitutional Court in relation to applications under Article 5 of the Convention,” the opinion states, referring to the rights to liberty and security under the European Convention.

Discussing this mixed verdict in a Skype interview, Freedom House director Nate Schenkken said the court may have been reluctant to open the floodgates to scores of Turkish journalists, academics, civil servants and law-enforcement officials purged in the wake of the country’s state of emergency.

“If they decide there’s no domestic remedy in Turkey, they’re going to get 150,000 applications that they’re going to have to hear, immediately, and they don’t have the capacity to hear them,” Schenkken said.

“That’s obviously not a legal answer,” he noted. “That’s a political answer, and it’s been clear for a while that everyone’s looking for a political way to avoid this.”

Altan’s brother, Ahmet Alan, was also given a life sentence but his case has not yet reached Europe’s rights court. Thirty-eight Nobel laureates have signed an open letter that calls on Erdogan to free Altan, who is considered one of Turkey’s most renowned novelists.

Like dozens of other news outlets shuttered in the wake of Turkey’s state of emergency, Taraf, the liberal broadsheet where Altan worked with his brother, Ahmet Altan, has since been shuttered for alleged Gulen ties.

Alpay’s former newspaper Zaman was also shut down by Erdogan’s government for its ties to Gulen’s movement.

The Altans’ attorney, Veysel Ok, tweeted his reaction to the decision this morning. “This is a cautious ruling which still gives Turkey a chance to make [its Constitutional] Court an effective remedy,” Ok wrote.

Earlier this morning, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, released a scathing report finding Turkey had committed “profound” abuses, such as arbitrary detentions and dismissals, infringements on the rights of freedom of association and expression, and torture and ill-treatment.

But Turkey’s foreign ministry rejected al-Hussein’s call to end a state of emergency, instead attacking the commissioner as a “collaborator of terrorist organizations.”

Such defiance has led to Turkey’s continued slide among civil-society watchdogs.

Turkey has held the record for two years in a row as the world’s leading jailer of journalists, and it holds the 155th spot out of 180 nations ranked by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.
The European Court of Human Rights says that Turkish authorities violated the rights of journalists Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay when they were arrested in the aftermath of a failed coup. The court ruled the men, one of whom is now serving life, were innocent and their rights to freedom of expression and to liberty had been violated.