Restriction of liberty and the Sledgehammer

Çetin Doğan (70) and 18 other individuals were released from detention on April 1st, after a judge ruled, among other things, that the evidence at hand did not indicate “strong cause for suspicion” and that Doğan and others were unlikely to flee prior to a possible trial. The judge who issued this ruling was reviled in the media, and three days later, another sitting court reversed the decision. Arrest warrants were reissued against those released. Çetin Doğan had checked in to a hospital to receive treatment for hernia and other ailments that were aggravated during his detention. He faces being returned to prison upon discharge from the hospital.

The overturning of the ruling to release Çetin Doğan and the others violates Turkish law, which make no allowance for prosecutorial appeal against the lifting of detention unless new evidence emerges or gross procedural errors are committed. It is also against European legal norms and the practices of the European Court of Human Rights.  In an article published in a Turkish daily, Rıza Türmen, a former Turkish judge with the European Court of Human Rights explained this in detail. Here we provide a translation of his article.