The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will give priority to a review of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu's detention.
The court’s decision was reported by Imamoğlu's lawyer, Mehmet Pehlivan, who is also under detention. He said that such a decision to accelerate the examination had been rarely seen in applications from Turkey.
If the ECHR rules that the detention is unlawful on the grounds that there is no suspicion of a crime, İmamoğlu's release will become mandatory, although it could take years to reach that point. Furthermore, Turkey still has not applied an ECHR order to release Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş that was issued in November.
LONG PATH
After the court sends Turkey a set of questions to answer, Turkey will have 12 weeks to respond. After the questions are sent, third parties wishing to become parties to the case may also apply to the court to do so.
After Turkey's responses are communicated to İmamoğlu's lawyers, İmamoğlu will submit his counter-arguments within eight weeks to the ECHR, which will then work on a ruling. The court also has the authority to shorten these timeframes.
There are two possible decisions from the Second Chamber of the ECHR, which handles cases in Turkey. In the first, the Chamber may issue a ruling. In this case, the parties have the right to appeal the decision within three months.
A panel of five members decides whether the appeal will be heard by the Grand Chamber. If the appeal is accepted, it will go to the Grand Chamber. In this case, the Grand Chamber's decision will be final. If it decides that İmamoğlu's detention constitutes a violation of his rights, he will have to be released once the decision becomes final.
In the second scenario, the Second Chamber may refer the case to the Grand Chamber because of its importance. In this case, the appeal will be decided definitively by the Grand Chamber.
The court gives priority to applications that are particularly important in terms of the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Most recently, in 2017, the court granted priority to eight applications, including those of journalists Murat Sabuncu, Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan, Şahin Alpay, and Murat Aksoy.
