The Belgian Council for Alien Law Litigation (RvV) has confirmed that persecution against members of the Hizmet Movement continues in Turkey. According to attorney Ali Yıldız, the court issued a landmark ruling correcting a widely applied but flawed interpretation used in asylum procedures across Europe.
The case concerned a Turkish citizen who had served a full prison sentence in Turkey for alleged “membership in a terrorist organization” under Article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code. After completing the sentence, the individual obtained a passport through legal means, left Turkey lawfully, and applied for asylum in Belgium. His application was initially rejected by the Belgian asylum office (CGVS), but the case was appealed to the RvV.
The Belgian court overturned the rejection and granted the applicant refugee status. The ruling emphasized that leaving Turkey through “legal” channels does not prove that the risk of persecution has disappeared.
Attorney Ali Yıldız: “The court corrected a wrong interpretation”
Speaking to TR724, attorney Ali Yıldız explained why this decision matters:
“This decision, published in the RvV’s monthly bulletin, corrects a misinterpretation increasingly adopted by asylum authorities in various European countries. That interpretation assumes that those who served sentences under Article 314 and were later released are no longer at risk in Turkey. But this assumption does not match the realities on the ground.”
The court stated that factors such as:
- being conditionally released and not rearrested,
- having no new criminal cases,
- being able to obtain a passport and leave legally, and
- having family members still living in Turkey,
do not eliminate the risk of renewed persecution. The court underlined: “Persecution can take different forms.”
Therefore, it granted refugee status to the applicant, stressing that the absence of new criminal proceedings does not mean the risk has vanished.
Yıldız also pointed out that each asylum case depends on its own merits:
“Applicants must present their files comprehensively, support them with expert reports, and convincingly demonstrate why they remain at risk. This ruling shows that serving a sentence does not erase the persecution risk, but proper case presentation is still crucial.”
In conclusion, the RvV rejected the reasoning of the Belgian asylum office, which had argued that the applicant’s lawful exit and lack of new charges indicated safety. Instead, the court recognized that persecution of Hizmet members in Turkey persists in multiple forms.
