Türkiye: European Court Orders Rights Defender’s Immediate Release

Click to expand Image Osman Kavala © 2017 Private (London, August 25, 2026) – The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights today delivered a landmark judgment in the case of Osman Kavala, the human rights defender and civil society leader unlawfully imprisoned in Türkiye since November 2017. The court ruled that Kavala's continued detention is unlawful and found that his rights to fair trial, freedom of expression, and association have been violated. The court also found that his aggr