Religion – Weltanschauung – Recht [ RWR ]

The applicants, İhsan Güler and Sinan Uğur, are Turkish nationals who were born in 1964 and 1947 respectively and live in Ankara and İzmir (Turkey). The case concerns the applicants’ conviction in 2008 to ten months’ imprisonment for propaganda in favour of a terrorist organization, on account of their participation in a religious service organized in the premises of the Party for a Democratic Society (DTP) in memory of three individuals, members of the PKK (Workers’ Party of Kurdistan, an illegal armed organization), who had been killed by the security forces.

In support of its judgment convicting the applicants, which was upheld on points of law, the Ankara Assize Court found, in particular, that the persons in whose memory the service had been held were members of a terrorist organization, that they had been killed by the security forces in the course of actions conducted by that organization and that there existed serious doubts as to the real motives for the gathering in view of the choice of venue, namely the premises of a political party in which the symbols of the illegal organization had been displayed.

Relying on Articles 7 (no punishment without law), 9 (right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion) and 11 (freedom of assembly and association), the applicants allege that their conviction was based on their participation in a religious service which consisted in a simple public manifestation of their religious practice. They also consider that their conviction was not sufficiently foreseeable, having regard to the wording of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Under Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) taken together with Articles 9 and 11, the applicants also allege that their conviction also amounted to discrimination against them on the basis of their Kurdish ethnic origin and their political opinions.

Press release ECHR 341 (2014) 26/11/2014