Grand Chamber Hearing of Yalçınkaya v. Türkiye at the European Court of Human Rights

Описание: 18.01.2023 - Yalçınkaya v. Türkiye (application no. 15669/20), concerning the trial and conviction of a teacher for membership of the “FETÖ/PDY”. The trial took place in the aftermath of the attempted coup d’état of 15 July 2016. After the hearing that took place today on 18 January 2023, the Court will begin its deliberations, which will be held in private. Its ruling in the case will, however, be made at a later stage.

The applicant, Yüksel Yalçınkaya, is a Turkish national who was born in 1966 and lives in Kayseri. In 2016 Mr Yalçınkaya, then a teacher, was arrested on suspicion in of membership an organisation described by the Turkish authorities as the “Fetullahist Terror Organisation / Parallel State Structure” (Fetullahçı Terör Örgütü / Paralel Devlet Yapılanması – “FETÖ/PDY”). Following placement in pre-trial detention, a bill of indictment was lodged in 2017, which cited, among other things, use of the ByLock telephone application, banking activity, union activity, and an anonymous informant. The case went to trial, with Mr Yalçınkaya being found guilty and sentenced to six years and three months’ imprisonment, with the use of ByLock, suspicious banking activity, and membership of a trade union and association affiliated with the FETÖ/PDY being cited in particular by the first-instance court.

Subsequently the Ankara Regional Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation upheld Mr Yalçınkaya’s conviction. The Constitutional Court rejected as inadmissible an applicationlodged by him in this case. The events in question took place against the background of the attempted coup d’état of 15 July 2016 (see Ahmet Hüsrev Altan v. Turkey (no. 13252/17) and Akgün v. Turkey (no. 19699/18) for more details). The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 17 March 2020. Relying on Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (right to a fair trial) of the European Convention of Human Rights, the applicant complains, in particular, that the courts that tried him were not independent and impartial; that he was convicted on the basis of unlawfully obtained evidence, to which he did not have access, and which was not directly examined by the domestic courts, which relied exclusively on the assessment of the prosecution and other public officials of that evidence, in violation of the principle of equality of arms and adversarial proceedings; that the evidence was assessed arbitrarily by the domestic courts and that the appeal courts failed to provide sufficient reasons for their decisions; and that he was denied the right to effective legal assistance owing to the restrictions imposed on his communication with his lawyer.

On 19 February 2021, the Turkish Government were given notice of the application, with questions from the Court.

On 3 May 2022, the Chamber to which the case had been allocated relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber.

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