The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that Turkey violated the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by unlawfully detaining 51 judges and prosecutors after the failed coup attempt in 2016. The court found that their pretrial detention did not comply with legal procedures and ordered Turkey to pay each applicant €5,000 in non-pecuniary damages, amounting to a total of €255,000.
The case, Elibol and Others v. Türkiye, was heard by a three-judge panel of the ECtHR’s Second Section. The court determined that the applicants’ right to liberty and security under Article 5 of the ECHR had been violated. It rejected Turkey’s arguments, including the claim that the arrests were justified under the principle of in flagrante delicto, which allows for immediate detention without prior authorization.
The arrests of the 51 judges and prosecutors were part of a broader crackdown on members of the judiciary following the 2016 coup attempt. The Turkish government blamed the coup on the Gülen movement, a faith-based group led by Fethullah Gülen, which denies any involvement. Following the coup attempt, a state of emergency was declared, and mass purges were carried out across state institutions. More than 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, as well as 24,000 members of the armed forces, were dismissed by emergency decree-laws that were not subject to judicial or parliamentary review.
The ECtHR emphasized that while the coup attempt created an exceptional situation, the detention of the judges and prosecutors was not carried out in accordance with domestic law or the ECHR. It referred to previous similar rulings, including Baş v. Turkey and Turan and Others v. Turkey, which also addressed post-coup judicial purges.
Despite this ruling and previous decisions against Turkey, the government has consistently failed to implement ECtHR judgments. The country has the highest number of cases before the ECtHR, particularly concerning freedom of expression, arbitrary detention, and fair trial rights. The failure to comply with ECtHR decisions has led the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers to launch an infringement procedure against Turkey, particularly over its refusal to release jailed philanthropist Osman Kavala.
International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have documented widespread violations in Turkey’s post-coup crackdown. These include arbitrary detentions, prolonged pretrial detention, and politically motivated prosecutions. Among the applicants in the Elibol case was Haşim Güney, a former judge of the Council of State who was sentenced to ten years in prison. His son, Nahit Emre Güney, took his own life in 2022, reportedly due to the distress caused by his father’s imprisonment.
This ruling further highlights the ongoing legal and human rights challenges in Turkey, as well as the difficulties in enforcing ECtHR judgments in a political climate where the government continues to resist European legal oversight.
