Following a meeting with Osman Kavala at the Silivri prison today, the PACE rapporteurs for the monitoring of Türkiye, John Howell (United Kingdom, EC/DA) and Boriss Cilevičs (Latvia, SOC), have again called on the Turkish authorities to implement the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and to continue their high-level dialogue with the Council of Europe.

"The opportunity we had to meet Mr Kavala, who remains in prison since 2017 despite two ECHR rulings, is an important step forward in the dialogue between the Council of Europe and the Turkish authorities. It needs to lead towards the implementation of Strasbourg Court rulings – which is a clear obligation under the Human Rights Convention – and Mr Kavala’s release. We thank the Turkish delegation to PACE and the authorities for facilitating this meeting.

We assured Mr Kavala of our strong commitment and support to finding a solution for his release, and our determination to continue to closely follow his case, along with the Committee of Ministers, which is primarily responsible for the execution of judgements. Mr Kavala appreciated our visit. In his view, the interest in his case is an important point for all friends of Türkiye striving to strengthen human rights in the country.

Both the authorities and Mr Kavala’s lawyers informed us of the pending legal procedures at the Constitutional Court and the Court of Cassation concerning Mr Kavala, after the appellate court upheld his aggravated life sentence in December 2022 - a matter of deep concern for us.

We invite the Turkish authorities to continue to engage in and pursue their high-level dialogue with the Council of Europe, including through parliamentary channels, and to play their part in safeguarding our common system of human rights protection which Türkiye, as a founding member of the Organisation, helped to establish.”