European Court of Human Rights calls for immediate release of Osman Kavala following unfair trial and declares his criminal conviction null and void

25 August 2026

The European Court of Human Rights has found that Osman Kavala’s continued detention and his conviction following an unfair criminal trial which resulted in his aggravated life imprisonment for attempting to overthrow the government by using force and violence in relation to the country-wide Gezi Park protests of May-June 2013 violated the European Convention on Human Rights.

His criminal conviction was declared null and void by the Court, and the Court has called for Mr Kavala’s immediate release at the earliest possible date.

This is the third judgment the European Court of Human Rights concerning Mr. Kavala’s nearly nine years of imprisonment for exercising his fundamental rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association.

The first judgment delivered in 2019 concerning his arrest and pre-trial detention found that there was not even reasonable suspicion to justify his detention, that his detention pursued the ulterior political purpose of silencing him as a human rights defender and called for his immediate release.

The second judgment in 2022 (an ‘infringement proceedings’ judgment) concerned the lack of implementation of the first judgment. The Grand Chamber held that continuously detaining Mr. Kavala for the same facts but under different charges and convicting him for crimes that do not meet even the standard of reasonable suspicion violated the obligation to implement the 2019 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in good faith, under Article 46 of the Convention.

This third judgment concerns Osman Kavala’s continuous detention since the delivery of the first judgment in 2019 and his conviction in 2022 and sentence to aggravated life imprisonment.

The Court found that Mr Kavala has been continuously unlawfully detained and that the criminal proceedings did not satisfy the requirements of a fair trial (violations of Articles 5 and 6 of the Convention). Taken together, the deficiencies in the proceedings and the unforeseeable use of criminal law resulted in serious violations of Mr. Kavala’s fundamental rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association (Articles 10 and 11 of the Convention).

The Court also found a breach of Article 3 of the Convention because of the absence of any mechanism to review the sentence of aggravated life imprisonment.

There was also a violation of Article 18 of the Convention because the measures taken against Mr Kavala (the bringing of criminal proceedings, his continued pre-trial detention and his conviction) were predominantly motivated by an ulterior purpose - to punish him for expressing his opinions as a human-rights defender, and to silence him.

Given the nature and consequences of the violations, the Court held that the appropriate means of putting an end to them is the applicant’s release. The judgment therefore requires the Turkish authorities to take the necessary measures to secure Mr Kavala’s immediate release at the earliest possible date.

The judgment, delivered by the Court’s Grand Chamber, is final under Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights are binding under Article 90 of the Turkish Constitution.

Implementation must now follow without delay to put an end to this gross injustice.

Başak Çalı and Philip Leach

(Osman Kavala’s legal representatives before the European Court of Human Rights)

The judgment is available in English and French on the Court’s HUDOC page.

25 August 2026

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