‘Turkey’s generic platitudes cannot hide the reality’

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Amnesty International has reiterated its call to Turkey to "immediately release" imprisoned former Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş and businessperson and rights defender Osman Kavala, for whom the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) gave judgements of "right violation" and "immediate release".

In a statement tilted "Failure to free Osman Kavala makes mockery of Erdogan's Human Rights Action Plan," Amnesty International's Europe Director Nils Muižnieks has responded to the calls by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers on the government to implement binding ECtHR judgments and release Kavala and Demirtaş.

"Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş have been arbitrarily and unjustly deprived of their liberty for years, despite the binding Court decisions that they be released," Muižnieks has said and added:

'It makes a mockery of action plan'

"Their continued detention makes a mockery of President Erdoğan's government's attempts to whitewash systemic human rights abuses by unveiling a meaningless Human Rights Action Plan last week.

"This action plan and Turkey's generic platitudes cannot hide the reality: The ongoing imprisonment of these two men, and scores of others, for simply exercising their rights shows that in Turkey, freedom of expression is ruthlessly punished.

"Turkish authorities must release Kavala and Demirtaş, allow human rights defenders to do their work and stop putting undue pressure on their judges. It is high time that states across Europe tell Turkey that prosecuting and imprisoning people for political reasons is unacceptable.

"The Committee of Ministers' decision to keep Turkey under its watch on a weekly basis is a welcome step ahead of an infringement procedure." (HA/SD)