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MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES |
Decisions |
CM/Del/Dec(2024)1501/H46-35 |
13 June 2024 |
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1501st meeting, 11-13 June 2024 (DH)
H46-35 Selahattin Demirtaş (No. 2) group v. Turkey (Application No. 14305/17) Supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgments
Reference documents |
Decisions
The Deputies
1. recalled that in these cases the Court found that the applicants, elected members of the National Assembly at the relevant times, were detained in the absence of evidence to support a reasonable suspicion they had committed an offence (violations of Article 5 §§ 1 and 3) and that their arrests and pre-trial detention pursued an ulterior purpose (violations of Article 18 taken in conjunction with Article 5); that the lifting of the applicants’ parliamentary immunity and the way the criminal law was applied to penalise them for political speeches were not foreseeable and prescribed by law (Article 10) and that their consequent detention made it effectively impossible for them to take part in the activities of the National Assembly (Article 3 of Protocol No. 1); further recalled that in the Yüksekdağ Şenoğlu and Others case the Court also found a violation of the right to a speedy decision on the lawfulness of detention on account of the use of stereotyped reasoning by the domestic court in denying access to the investigation file (Article 5 § 4);
2. noting the Assize Court’s decision to convict some of the applicants including Mr Demirtaş and Ms Yüksekdağ Şenoğlu, invited the Turkish authorities to provide, as soon as possible, detailed information on the outcome of the proceedings with respect to all of the applicants in the present cases, together with information on the trial court’s assessment regarding how the alleged acts against the applicants differed from those characterised by the Court as the lawful exercise of Convention rights by political representatives;
3. recalling that individual applications of Mr Demirtaş and Ms Yüksekdağ Şenoğlu concerning their
pre-trial detention are still pending before the Constitutional Court, and that of Mr Demirtaş before the European Court, pointed out that decisions of these courts could provide guidance to the Committee on the individual measures required in the present cases; thus strongly urged the authorities to ensure that the Constitutional Court completes its examination of both applicants’ complaints without further delay and with full regard to the Court’s findings, particularly under Article 18 of the Convention that the applicants’ detention pursued the ulterior purpose of stifling pluralism and limiting freedom of political debate;
4. urged the Turkish authorities to take all necessary measures to secure the immediate release of all applicants, for example by considering alternative measures to detention, until the European Court or the Constitutional Court establishes whether the alleged acts of the applicants at the basis of the Assize Court’s judgment differed from those characterised by the Court as the lawful exercise of their Convention rights as political representatives;
5. decided to resume consideration of the individual measures at their 1507th meeting (September 2024) (DH).