14, October, 2021
FIDU – Italian Federation for Human Rights/ Italian Helsinki Committee pursuant to the permission given by the European Court of Human Rights prepared a legal expert opinion on the abusive and unforeseeable use of anti-terror provision, namely Art. 314 of Penal Code, by the Turkish authorities and the criminalization of peaceful use of encrypted instant messaging app called Bylock.
The expert opinion was submitted to the case of Saglam v. Turkey (Application no. 14894/20) that is pending for the Court’s consideration.
The expert opinion was prepared by a group of experts consisting of prominent Italian, British and Turkish attorneys and jurists, and with the cooperation of the Arrested Lawyers Initiative.
Ms Eleonora Mongelli, Vice President of the Italian Federation for Human Rights said: “Turkey has the largest population of inmates convicted of terrorism-related offences. According to a Council of Europe’s report, of a current total of 30,524 inmates in COE member states sentenced for terrorism, 29,827 of these are in Turkish prisons. Anti-terrorism laws are being used extensively to silence Turkish human rights defenders and activists and the list of variables that is being used to ascertain whether the individual concerned is a member of an armed terrorist organisation (GM/FETO-PDY) consists solely and exclusively of either lawful activity and/or interactions with legally instituted entities, and/or in exercise of the rights and freedoms that are enshrined under the Turkish Constitution and the ECHR”.