Turkey on Thursday (December 2) called on the European Commission to avoid penalizing Turkey until this week’s decision is made on whether Ankara may face rare disciplinary proceedings in the case of the imprisoned activist Osman Kavala.
The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement: “Out of respect for the ongoing judicial process, we invite the European Commission to avoid making decisions that are qualified to interfere with independent judicial institutions.”
Osman Kavala is a 64-year-old civil society leader and businessman who has not been convicted for more than four years. He has been accused of funding anti-government protests in 2013 and playing a role in an attempted coup in 2016. He has been spent in prison.
Although the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) under the Council of Europe ruled in December 2019, he denied these allegations and has been in prison.
The Committee of Ministers, the authority responsible for monitoring the implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, started meeting from November 30 to December 2.
The Council of Ministers considered this week whether to initiate an infringement lawsuit against Turkey for failing to release Kavala last month.
An Istanbul court ordered Kavala to stay in prison on November 26, even though his case led to a diplomatic deadlock between Turkey and 10 Western embassies, including the United States.
There were unconfirmed reports on Thursday that the European Commission agreed to file a lawsuit against Turkey, after which the ministry issued a strong statement.
The ministry stated that the European Commission had adopted an “inconsistent approach and insisted on keeping the decision on Kavala on the agenda”.
“It hurts the European Commission itself first, because the existing mechanism…is used against certain countries based on political concerns rather than legal and fair understanding,” it said.
