ENSAR NUR | STRASBOURG
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled against Turkey in three separate cases involving 120 former senior judges, finding that their right to a fair trial had been violated. The court ordered Turkey to pay a total of €356,400 ($383,000) in damages, along with tens of thousands of euros in legal fees. The country has three months to comply with the ruling.
The cases involved former judges from Turkey’s top judicial institutions. The court ruled on six former judicial officials from the Ministry of Justice and the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) in Benli and Others v. Turkey, 30 former judges from the Council of State in Olcay and Others v. Turkey, and 84 former judges from the Court of Cassation in Tosun and Others v. Turkey. The applications were filed between 2015 and 2017.
The ECHR’s three-judge panel determined that the applicants had been denied access to judicial review. In Benli and Others, the judges were unable to challenge HSYK’s decisions to remove them from their positions or reassign them to different cities without their consent. In Olcay and Others and Tosun and Others, the judges were dismissed following the passage of Law No. 6723, which they argued arbitrarily terminated their terms. The court ruled that Turkey had violated their right to a fair trial.
The ECHR referenced its April 2024 ruling in Sözen v. Turkey, in which it found that Turkey had unfairly removed a Council of State judge, Bekir Sözen, following the enactment of Law No. 6723. The court awarded Sözen €7,800 in damages and €1,000 in legal costs.
Judicial Restructuring Under Law No. 6723
Law No. 6723 was passed in Turkey’s Parliament two weeks before the July 15, 2016, coup attempt and took effect a week after. The law resulted in the dismissal of all senior judges without granting them the right to appeal.
Attorney Rumeysa Budak, commenting on the Sözen ruling, said on social media that the law was part of a broader effort to restructure the judiciary under executive control in the aftermath of the coup attempt.
