The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a ‘violation’ decision on the application of Nazlı Ilıcak, who was detained and arrested after the coup attempt in 2016.
The Supreme Court ruled that there was no concrete evidence that Ilıcak was a member of a terrorist organization or that she was trying to overthrow the government.
Court ruled that Ilıcak was arbitrarily arrested and her freedom of expression was violated.
The verdict was formed by a majority of six votes to one. The Turkish judge of the ECHR, Saadet Yuksel, made an annotation to the decision.
In the decision, the ECHR stated that the articles citing Ilıcak’s detention were matters of public interest related to already known facts and events; it emphasized that the articles were not of a nature that would encourage the use of violence or contribute to the illegal purposes of terrorist organizations within the scope of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Turkey will pay Ilıcak 16 Thousand Euros in non-pecuniary damages in accordance with the ECHR decision.
What happened previously?
Nazlı Ilıcak was detained on 26 July 2016 in an operation against the Gulen Community following the coup attempt. 42 journalists were detained at the same operation, Ilıcak, who was accused of ”overthrowing the government, membership in the organization and propaganda of the organization”, was arrested after 4 days by the Istanbul Sentry Magistrate’s Office along with 16 journalists.
Ilıcak later appealed the court’s decision on this temporary detention, but her request was not accepted. Ilıcak made an individual application to the Constitutional Court (AYM) on November 14, 2016 on the basis of “violation of security and freedom of expression” after this result.
The temporary detention order on Ilıcak continued until November 4, 2019, when she was released on condition of judicial control. The judicial process against Ilıcak, who is currently being tried without arrest, is continuing. (NA)
Source: bianet.org