Top court rejects claims that Altan’s unlawful re-arrest and the partiality of the courts that ruled for his re-arrest violated his right to liberty and security

The Second Section of the Constitutional Court rejected the second application filed on behalf of jailed novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan over his re-arrest only eight days after his release in November 2019.

In its unanimous judgment dated 21 October 2020, the Court rejected the claims that Altan’s unlawful re-arrest and the biased decisions of the courts that ruled for his re-arrest and that ruled on the objections to his re-arrest violated his right to liberty and security. The Court found both claims to be “inadmissible” on the grounds that they were “manifestly ill-founded.”

The Court issued its reasoned judgment in writing on 2 December 2020 on its official website.

Altan’s lawyer Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu said she will take the Constitutional Court’s latest judgment to the European Court of Human Rights.

The full text of the judgment (in Turkish) can be accessed here

At the end of his retrial, on 4 November 2019, Ahmet Altan was handed down a prison sentence of 10 years and 6 months on the charge of “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member” and released on account of the time he had spent in pre-trial detention as part of the case. However, two days after Altan’s release, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office objected to the trial court’s decision. Although the trial court rejected the objection, the next court of first instance ruled on 12 November for Altan's re-arrest on the grounds that “the judicial control measures imposed on him” remained “insufficient considering flight risk … the intensity of his actions, the duration of the prison sentence he was given, the time he spent in detention on remand … as well as his conduct following his release.”

The 27th High Criminal Court issued a warrant for Altan as it revoked the 26th High Criminal Court’s order for his release. On 13 November, Altan appeared before the 27th High Criminal Court, where he was informed about the decision for his re-arrest and subsequently sent back to the Silivri Prison, only eight days after his release.

The application against Altan’s unlawful re-arrest was filed with the Constitutional Court on 21 November 2019.