The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Tuesday that Turkey acted unlawfully when it held a judge it accused of links to organisers of the 2016 coup for 14 months without trial.
The court said Turkey committed three violations of the European Convention on Human Rights: unlawfully depriving the judge of his right to liberty, holding him without a reasonable suspicion that he had committed an offence, and denying him the right to challenge his detention in court.
It ordered Turkey to pay the judge, Hakan Bas, 6,000 euros (USD 6,700) in damages plus 4,000 euros in costs and expenses. "The evidence... did not warrant the conclusion that there had been a reasonable suspicion against the applicant at the time of his initial detention," the court said.
Bas was arrested in July 2016 in the wake of a failed coup blamed by Ankara on a group with links to US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.
Under a state of emergency, Turkey suspended 2,735 judges and prosecutors that month, including Bas, citing a strong suspicion that they were linked to the coup plotters.
Bas was placed in pre-trial detention four days later, and made his first court appearance on September 19 the following year, after his trial had started.
He was found guilty in March 2018 of membership of a terrorist organisation.
Bas was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, but he was released considering the time he had already spent in detention awaiting trial.
Since the failed 2016 coup, tens of thousands of people have been arrested over suspected ties to Gulen and more than 100,000 people have been sacked or suspended from public-sector jobs. Gulen rejects the coup accusations.
Erdogan's critics say the crackdown is a pretext for removing opponents and civil society activists.
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