The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) published its decision on Monday regarding Turkey's failure to release the prominent philanthropist and rights activist Osman Kavala who was sentenced to life in prison in May.

The court ruled that Turkey had violated a previous judgment from the ECHR in the case of Kavala vs Turkey from December 2019 that called for Kavala's release.

The court's decision on Monday also ordered Turkey to pay Kavala €7,500 ($7,580) for failing to apply the previous decision.

It is rare for the court to explicitly reprimand a state for failing to abide by a decision. Since it was ministers from the Council of Europe (CoE) who referred the case back to the court in February, Monday's decision is seen as moving the CoE a step closer to suspending Turkey as a member.

"We urge Türkiye, as a Party to the European Convention on Human Rights, to take all necessary steps to implement the judgment," the CoE said on Monday, using Ankara's preferred name for Turkey.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in response that Monday's decision "once again called into question the credibility of the European human rights system."

Violation of the European Convention of Human Rights

The court decided in a 16 to 1 vote that Turkey had violated the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to abide by the ECHR ruling.

The judges found that Turkey had made some steps to follow the previous judgment, but that these had not been made in "good faith" or in a way that was compatible with the "conclusions and spirit" of the judgment.

Kavala had previously been detained for four and a half years without a conviction.

The philanthropist was among several prominent defendants who had been accused of having ties to the 2013 Gezi Park protests and the subsequent 2016 coup attempt.

Charges aimed to 'silence' Kavala

Although Kavala, 64, was released on the court's orders, he was immediately rearrested on charges that were "based on facts that were similar, or even identical, to those that the Court had already examined in the Kavala judgment," the ECHR said in a statement.

According to the court, the charges brought against Kavala "were not based on reasonable suspicions and the actual purpose of the impugned measures had been to silence him and to dissuade other human rights defenders."

He was acquitted on charges of funding the 2013 protests before being arrested again and charged with attempting to overthrow the constitutional order in connection with the coup attempt.

He was once again acquitted, but then arrested on charges of espionage, seen at the time as a way of getting around the ECHR's 2019 ruling.

ab/rc (Reuters, AFP)