The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in its decision regarding journalist Hidayet Karaca’s application that his rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) were violated, and condemned Turkey. Turkey will pay Karaca 18,000 Euros in compensation.
The ECtHR has today reached a decision on the application of journalist Hidayet Karaca, the President of the closed Samanyolu Media Group, after years of waiting.
The Court, examining the application, found Hidayet Karaca, who is imprisoned, to be justified and condemned Turkey to pay compensation due to the unlawful actions it committed.
According to Ensar Nur’s report on TR724.com, the ECtHR made a decision after almost 8 years in the case of Karaca, who has been detained since December 14, 2014. Karaca had applied to the ECtHR in 2015 after being arrested in December 2014 on the basis of a conspiracy fabricated from a TV series script. In April 2016, the Court had sent questions to the Turkish government and Karaca for their responses. The Court had not decided on the application since that date.
DECISION ANNOUNCED ON THE DAY OF THE MARCH
In the decision, which coincided with the second Justice Meeting organized in front of the ECtHR, the Court ruled that Hidayet Karaca’s rights guaranteed by the ECHR were violated and condemned Turkey. Turkey will pay Karaca 18,000 Euros in compensation.
Hidayet Karaca’s lawyers had stated in the application that many articles of the ECHR were violated.
Karaca’s lawyers complained that there was no concrete evidence to reasonably suspect that he had committed a criminal offense; that the legality of his detention was not promptly reviewed; that he was not tried within a reasonable time and the detention period was long; and that he was not given the opportunity to effectively challenge the legality of his detention before an independent and impartial judicial authority.
The lawyers argued that his arrest on charges of establishing and managing a terrorist organization by allowing the broadcast of a television series in his capacity as the manager of Samanyolu Media Group was a violation of his right to freedom of expression.
The ECtHR, in its decision announced today, found violations in all of these articles.
WILL HIDAYET KARACA BE RELEASED?
The decision of the European Court of Human Rights is not sufficient to release Hidayet Karaca from prison.
The 16th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation had upheld on April 20, 2021, the 31.5-year prison sentence given to Hidayet Karaca by the Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court on November 3, 2017, on the grounds of conspiring against the “Tahşiyeciler group”.
The application made in 2015 naturally does not contain a complaint about the merits of the criminal case. As the decision given by the ECtHR concerns Hidayet Karaca’s initial detention status, i.e., the situation before he was sentenced, the release of the 60-year-old journalist will not be on the agenda.
Karaca and his lawyers made another application to the ECtHR at the beginning of 2023 after exhausting domestic legal remedies regarding the sentence given in the case in Turkey. However, a request for release can be made only after the conclusion of that case.
THE PROCESS OF CONVICTION
Karaca was arrested on the grounds of broadcasting a television series on one of the channels belonging to the Samanyolu media group, allegedly to defame members of another Islamist group known as Tahşiyeciler, whose views were claimed to be generally opposed to those of the Gülen Movement, by portraying them as terrorists.
In the subsequent process, Karaca was sentenced to a total of 31 years and 6 months in prison, receiving 18 years for leading an organization, 4 years and 6 months for slander, and 9 years for forgery of official documents.
