Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court rejects Kavala's ECtHR objection

The Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court, in its decision dated 13 November 2026, rejected the objection filed by Osman Kavala's lawyers against the Istanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court's decision of 13 October 2026 not to comply with the ECtHR judgment. The higher court ruled that there was no violation of procedure or law in the decision handed down by the court of first instance on the basis of Article 318/3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The decision also adopted the reasoning that domestic legal remedies had not yet been exhausted because of the individual application pending before the Constitutional Court. As a result, the rejection of Kavala's requests for retrial, for suspension of execution and for his release became final in terms of ordinary appeal routes having been used.

In its judgment of 25 August 2026 in "Kavala/Türkiye (No. 2)" (Application No. 2170/24), the ECtHR Grand Chamber had ruled that Kavala's rights under Articles 3, 5, 6, 10, 11 and 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated, and had called for his release at the earliest possible date and for the removal of all consequences of his conviction. The Grand Chamber had also considered and rejected Turkey's objection, which was based on the argument that the individual application before the Constitutional Court had not been concluded.

The ECtHR, assessing together Kavala's deprivation of liberty for more than 8.5 years, his failure to obtain any result despite continuously using domestic remedies, the delays at the Constitutional Court and the non-implementation of previous ECtHR judgments, ruled that Kavala could not be required to wait for the application before the Constitutional Court to be concluded.

On 30 October 2026, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers had taken up the Istanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court's rejection decision and announced that it was particularly concerned by the rejection of the requests for retrial, suspension of execution and release despite the clear findings of the ECtHR Grand Chamber. Stressing that all state authorities in Turkey, including judicial bodies, are obliged to implement ECtHR judgments, the Committee asked for notification of the concrete steps envisaged for the implementation of the judgment. The Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court's rejection decision came two weeks after this warning. The Committee is expected to take up the file again at its human rights meeting on 1-3 December 2026.

In the assessment it published after the ECtHR's 25 August judgment, the Human Rights Center of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations drew attention to the obligation arising from Article 46 of the Convention and used the statement "This obligation and these commitments are not discretionary." Kavala's aggravated life sentence had become final with the upholding decision of the 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation dated 28 September 2023; Kavala has been in prison for more than 9 years.