STRASBOURG: The Council of Europe said on Friday it will launch disciplinary action against Turkey for refusing to free prominent activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala, triggering a procedure used only once before in the organisation’s history.

The pan-European rights body’s committee of ministers agreed the move over Turkey’s repeated refusal to comply with a 2019 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights to release Kavala from jail.

It comes as concern grows over rights abuses in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish leader has repeatedly targeted Kavala, who has now been in jail for over four years without ever being convicted of a crime.

“By failing to ensure the applicant’s immediate release, the committee considers that Turkey is refusing to abide by the court’s final judgement in this case,” the COE said.

The Turkish foreign ministry had urged the COE on Thursday not to begin the action “out of respect for the ongoing judicial process”, warning that the procedure would be “interference” in its domestic affairs.

Amnesty International’s Europe Director Nils Muiznieks welcomed the message to Turkey as “crystal clear” and said Kavala’s situation was “an unacceptable breach of the country’s human rights obligations”.

Aisling Reidy, senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch, added that the move was the “right course”, saying the near unprecedented nature of the action was an “acknowledgement of Turkey’s rule of law crisis”.

This is only the second time the COE has used its so-called infringement proceedings against one of its 47 member states, the first occasion being a 2017 action against Azerbaijan over its refusal to release dissident Ilgar Mammadov.

Mammadov was then released from jail in August 2018 and the proceedings ultimately were closed.

The procedure was created in 2010 to ensure full compliance with ECHR rulings, which are legally binding for COE member states.

The decision by the committee of ministers, which required a two-thirds majority, puts Turkey under formal notice that its failure to release Kavala will be referred back to the ECHR.

Turkey has a deadline of January 19 by which to respond, after which the committee would refer the case back to the ECHR at its next meeting on February 2.

The ECHR will then decide whether Turkey’s non-implementation of its 2019 ruling represents a further violation.

The next hearing in Kavala’s case in Istanbul is scheduled for January 17.

“This decision is a strong tool that needs to be used by all relevant actors to increase pressure on Turkey to end its problematic human rights practices,” said Ayse Bingol Demir, co-director of the Turkey Litigation Support Project.

The COE’s statute allows for the suspension of a member state’s voting rights, or even expulsion as an ultimate sanction. The process, however, is still far from reaching this stage.

The jailing of Kavala has become one of the most emblematic cases in Turkey under Erdogan, who has dominated the country for the last two decades but is now battling a severe economic crisis.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2021