Religion – Weltanschauung – Recht [ RWR ]

In today’s Chamber judgment in the case of Güler and Uğur v. Turkey (applications nos. 31706/10 and 33088/10) the European Court of Human Rights held, by a majority, that there had been a violation of Article 9 (right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The case concerned the applicants’ conviction for propaganda promoting a terrorist organization on account of their participation in a religious service organized on the premises of a political party in memory of three members of an illegal organization (the PKK) who had been killed by security forces. The Court found that the interference with the applicants’ freedom of religion on account of that conviction had not been “prescribed by law” in so far as the domestic-law provision on which it had been based had not met the requirements of clarity and foreseeability. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »

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. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »