In the case of Demirhan and Others v. Türkiye the Court held that there had been a violation of Article 7 (no punishment without law) and a violation of the right to a fair trial.

The case concerned the applicants’ convictions for membership of an armed terrorist organisation described by the Turkish authorities as the “Fetullahist Terror Organisation / Parallel State Structure” (Fetullahçı Terör Örgütü / Paralel Devlet Yapılanması, referred to as “the FETÖ/PDY”). The authorities consider FETÖ/PDY to be behind the coup attempt that took place in Türkiye on 15 July 2016.

The 239 applications making up this case are part of the thousands of applications on the Court’s docket that concern issues similar to those judged in the Court’s Grand Chamber case Yüksel Yalçınkaya v. Türkiye. As in that judgment, the Court found that the Turkish courts’ categorical approach to the use of the encrypted messaging application called “ByLock” – notably that anyone who had used the application could, in principle, be convicted on that basis alone of membership of an armed terrorist organisation – had breached the applicants’ right to effective protection against arbitrary prosecution, conviction and punishment and their fair trial rights.

Following the Yüksel Yalçınkaya judgment, the Court had already given notice to the Turkish Government of 5,000 similar applications, including those in the present case, and thousands were still accumulating on its docket.

• Press release