The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has again ordered Turkey to release Osman Kavala, a 68-year-old philanthropist, cultural patron and human rights activist who has been held in a high-security prison near Istanbul since October 2017. In a Grand Chamber ruling issued on Tuesday, the court found that Kavala's continued detention and his 2022 conviction violated multiple articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to liberty, freedom of expression and assembly, and the right to a fair trial. Crucially, the court also found that his aggravated life sentence — imposed without the possibility of release — constituted inhuman and degrading treatment under Article 3 of the Convention. His conviction was declared "null and void," and Turkey was ordered to pay him €70,000 in damages and over €43,000 in costs.

Kavala was arrested in 2017 on charges of financing and organising the 2013 Gezi Park protests, which began as a demonstration against the redevelopment of a public park in central Istanbul before spreading into the largest popular uprising against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government, leaving eight people dead and thousands injured. He was also later accused of involvement in the failed military coup of July 2016. Kavala was acquitted in February 2020, but was rearrested within hours on the new coup-related charges — a move widely seen as a legal manoeuvre to keep him behind bars. His original acquittal was overturned, and he was ultimately sentenced to life imprisonment in April 2022. The court found that the proceedings against him were "predominantly motivated by an ulterior purpose" — to punish him for his activism and silence him as a human rights defender. His case, the judges concluded, exposed a "systemic problem" in Turkey involving the detention and prosecution of political opponents, human rights defenders and journalists, and pointed to structural failures in the independence and impartiality of the Turkish judiciary.

This is not the first time Strasbourg has demanded Kavala's freedom. The ECHR issued a similar order in 2019, which Turkey refused to implement. In 2022, following a formal referral by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers — a rare and serious step — the court again found Turkey in violation. Turkey again ignored the ruling, making it the first country to defy such a formal infringement procedure; Azerbaijan had complied when faced with a similar process in 2017. Ankara has consistently maintained that its courts are independent and that the charges against Kavala are legitimate.

Tuesday's ruling carries significant geopolitical weight. The Council of Europe, the Strasbourg-based human rights organisation to which all 46 European states — including Turkey — belong, oversees the implementation of ECHR rulings. It has the power to suspend a member state's voting rights or even expel it from the organisation. Russia was expelled in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine. A meeting of the Committee of Ministers in mid-September is expected to prioritise the Kavala case, though whether it will move toward punitive measures remains uncertain. Amnesty International called Tuesday's ruling unambiguous: "This obstruction of justice must end. Turkey's authorities must act to free Osman Kavala immediately and unconditionally." Turkey's refusal to comply with three successive binding rulings has made Kavala's case one of the most serious and enduring flashpoints between Ankara and European human rights institutions.