Turkey's top court warns local court to comply with rights violation ruling after defiance

Duvar English

Turkey's Constitutional Court has given a second ruling over a local court's resistance to implement its rights violation decision concerning the application of a citizen.

The case concerns the sentences handed down to three citizens named Behzet Çakar, Erdoğan Yakışan and Ümit Işık on charges of being members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), online Gazete Karınca reported on Nov. 26.

All of the three suspects were released between 2003-2007 after serving their time.

During this time period, they filed an application with the Constitutional Court, saying that their rights to a fair trial had been violated and they demanded a retrial.

On Sept. 13, 2018, the top court accepted the applicants' demand, saying that the Diyarbakır 6th Heavy Penal Court had violated their rights.

However, the local court argued that it had the “judicial discretion” to not implement the top court's decision. This time, the applicants took their case to the top court again.

As Işık and Yakışan were abroad at the time of their applications, the top court dismissed their case and separated Çakır's file. The top court said in its ruling that the Diyarbakır court “did not have the judicial discretion” to not implement its decision. It said that the court had not abided by the fair trial procedures as the suspects' testimonies were taken without the presence of their lawyers at the time of their arrest.

As a result, the top court ordered the state to pay Çakıcı 40,000 liras in compensation for violating his right to liberty and security and another 3,964 liras for the court expenses.