The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday ruled that the rights of a Turkish teacher convicted of what prosecutors called terrorism offences had been violated because the case was largely based on his use of a phone app.
Ankara has blamed the coup on the followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey has listed Gulen’s movement as a terrorist organization known as FETO. Gulen denies any involvement in the failed putsch.Yuksel Yalcinkaya was among tens of thousands arrested following the coup attempt in July 2016, in which 251 people were killed as pro-coup elements of the military fired at crowds and bombed state buildings.
The European court found the “decisive evidence” for his conviction was the alleged use of ByLock, which is said to have been used exclusively by Gulen supporters. In a statement, the court said that “such a uniform and global approach by the Turkish judiciary vis-a-vis the ByLock evidence departed from the requirements laid down in national law” and contravened the convention’s “safeguards against arbitrary prosecution, conviction and punishment.”