Turkey Breached Gulen-Affiliated Journalist’s Rights: Strasbourg Court
Europe’s top human rights court ruled that Turkey violated the rights of Hidayet Karaca, a media executive affiliated with exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen’s network, during his long pre-trial detention period.
‘Zaman’ newspaper, which was taken over by the government in March 2016. Photo: EPA/DENIZ TOPRAK
The European Court of Human Rights, ECHR in Strasbourg ruled on Tuesday that Turkey violated the rights of Hidayet Karaca, who was an executive at a major media group executive affiliated with exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, for unfairly keeping him in detention for too long before his trial.
The ECHR said in a statement that there had been an “unlawful continuation” of Karaca’s pre-trial detention and a “lack of sufficient guarantees that the continuation of his pre-trial detention had been decided by an ‘independent and impartial tribunal’”.
It also said that Karaca’s rights had been breached “owing to the excessive length of the applicant’s pre-trial detention”.
The ECHR ruled that Turkey must pay 12,000 euros to Karaca for non-pecuniary damages and another 6,000 euros for costs and expenses.
Karaca was general coordinator of the Gulen-affiliated Samanyolu media group, which owned 14 television channels, nine radio stations, a news website and two weekly periodicals until it was closed down by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.
Erdogan’s government accuses Muslim preacher Gulen and his network of orchestrating a failed coup attempt in 2016. Gulen denies any involvement.
The government has closed down thousands of companies and institutions that had alleged ties to Gulen.
In 2017, he was sentenced to 31 years and six months in prison for forming and leading a terrorist organisation, forgery of documents and slander.
However, the ECHR said that he claims that accusation against him rests solely on his having authorised the broadcast of a television series in his capacity as director of the Samanyolu media group”.
