30/09/2026 Legal Affairs and Human Rights | Parliamentary Network to Promote the Implementation of ECHR Judgments
Her husband’s case, says Ayşe Buğra Kavala, “has implications beyond our personal tragedy”
The wife and lawyer of jailed Turkish businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala were among those to address a public hearing at PACE on recent developments in his case, which took place this afternoon on the margins of the Assembly's autumn session in Strasbourg.
Mr Kavala has been in prison in Türkiye continuously since 2017, despite rulings by the European Court of Human Rights ordering his release, the most recent by the Court’s Grand Chamber last month, which found that he was convicted for the ulterior purpose of punishing and silencing him, and to prevent his human rights work. The court ordered his release at the earliest possible date and the elimination of the consequences of his conviction.
Addressing today’s hearing, Mr Kavala’s wife Ayşe Buğra Kavala, who is a Professor at the Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Boğaziçi University, said that after nine years of her husband’s imprisonment “each additional day becomes more difficult to accept”. Her husband’s case, she said, “has implications beyond our personal tragedy” and showed that non-compliance with the Court’s decisions is possible. “I believe geopolitical interests should not override human rights values,” she added.
Philip Leach, Mr Kavala’s Counsel before the European Court of Human Rights and a Professor of Human Rights Law at Middlesex University in London, recalled the history of the Strasbourg Court’s three rulings, which had failed to result in his release. “What can be done? There are some procedures that could be used, that have not yet been used,” he pointed out, citing the Complementary Joint Procedure or the possible use of Article 52 of the European Convention.
The hearing was organised by the Assembly's Network of Parliamentarians to Promote the Implementation of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, which brings MPs together to press for execution of the Court’s rulings at national level.
In 2023 the Assembly awarded Mr Kavala the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize for his work to defend human rights.
