HCtHR says Detention of Alparslan Altan, a judge at the Turkish Constitutional Court, was unlawful and in breach of the Convention

Last 16th April 2019 the European Court of Human Rights issued a Chamber judgment in the case of Alparslan Altan v. Turkey (application no. 12778/17)
whereby it held, by a majority, that there had been:

• a violation of Article 5 § 1 (right to liberty and security) of the European Convention on Human Rights on account of the unlawfulness of the applicant’s initial pre-trial detention, and
• a violation of Article 5 § 1 on account of the lack of reasonable suspicion, at the time of the applicant’s initial pre-trial detention, that he had committed an offence.

The case concerned the detention of a Turkish Constitutional Court judge following the attempted coup of 15 July 2016.
Mr Altan was deprived of his liberty primarily on suspicion of membership of an armed terrorist
organisation, FETÖ/PDY. Among other things, the Court sitting in Strasbourg, regarding the order for Mr Altan’s pre-trial detention on 20 July 2016,  found that the evidence before it did not support the conclusion that there had been a reasonable suspicion at the time of his initial detention. That being so, the suspicion against him at that time had not reached the minimum level of “reasonableness” required by Article 5 § 1 (c). Although it had been imposed under judicial supervision, the detention order had been based on a mere suspicion of membership of a criminal organisation, independently of any pending criminal proceedings.

Useless to say that the allegations brought against Turkish justice Altan are very similar to those brought against thousands of innocent Turkish judges, and in particular to those represented by IAJ member YARSAV in the framework of mock trials before criminal Turkish courts, which have been severely condemned by international organisations and independent minded people throughout the world.

Further information available here:

https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/app/conversion/pdf?library=ECHR&id=003-6384674-8372166&filename=Judgment%20Alparslan%20Altan%20v.%20Turkey%20-%20detention%20of%20%20a%20Turkish%20Constitutional%20Court%20judge.pdf