No one can be condemned if this is not provided by law

On Tuesday. In addition, July 22, the European Court of Human Rights said by six votes against one that the Türkiye (Turkey) had violated article 7 of the Convention, which consecrates the principle of the legality of crimes and sentences, as well as article 6 § 1 which guarantees the right to a fair trial for having inflicted on 239 applicants for a prison sentence to belong to an armed terrorist organization on the sole basis of the use of a messer.

Nine years ago. Furthermore, on the night of July 15 to 16, 2016, a group of the Turkish armed forces attempted to lead a military coup to overthrow the Parliament, the government and the democratically elected president. Meanwhile, In the aftermath of this attempt. Moreover, which failed, the national authorities accused a network linked to a Turkish citizen then residing in no one can condemned if the United States, Fetullah Gülen, of being at the origin of this coup and having infiltrated the armed forces.

Criminal surveys have been opened throughout the country against people suspected of having participated in the attempted coup. Similarly, against people suspected of having links with this network called Fetö/Pdy. Furthermore, The applicants were accused of belonging to an armed terrorist organization on the grounds that they were suspected of belonging to this network. then were condemned of this charge. Their convictions rested to a determining extent on their supposed use of encrypted messaging. called Bylock, whose Turkish jurisdictions considered that, under the outside of a consumer application, it had been designed for the exclusive use of members of the Fetö/PDY network.

In these causes. the Court refers to a judgment in principle that it rendered almost two years ago concerning a Turkish teacher depicted of his functions after the coup no one can condemned if attempt and sentenced to a sentence of six years and three months’ imprisonment.

In this case. the Court recalled that article 7 of the Convention which prohibits any conviction for an action or omission which at the time it was committed did not constitute an offense according to national or international law was an essential element of the pre -eminence of law and occupied a primordial place in the system of protection of the Convention. This primordial place is attested by the fact that there can be no derogation. even in wartime or other public danger.

However. considering, by an extensive interpretation of the law, that the simple use of the Bylock application revealed belonging to an armed terrorist organization, the Turkish jurisdictions had, in an unpredictable manner, disregard the legal condition that the author actually wants to belong to such an organization.

In addition. the applicant had not been no one can condemned if able to effectively contest the main evidence in question, either the use of the bylock application and to defend himself on an equal footing with the accusation, which constituted an attack on the guarantee of a fair trial. The causes deemed on July 22 being similar. they led the Court to say that the Türkiye had violated articles 6 and 7 of the Convention in these 239 cases.

Finally. the Court stresses that these violation findings revealed a systemic problem that affects a large number of people, having to be resolved at the national level. Since the surrender of the judgment of principle of 2023. she has already communicated to the Turkish government some 5,000 similar requests and thousands of requests continue to flow and be registered with the role of the Court.

In these troubled times. it is delightful to note that the courts can recall that the nucleus no one can condemned if of fundamental rights is not likely to be started, even in the event of war or serious disorders internal to a state.

Pierre-Yves Bosshard is a lawyer at the Geneva Bar, member of the Committee of the Association of Progressive Jurists.