The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that denying prisoners in Turkey access to certain books and publications constitutes a violation of freedom of expression. In its judgment of September 2 in the case of Aktaş and Others v. Turkey, the court found a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Specifically, the case concerned several complaints from prisoners who had not been given access to writings by Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan and various magazines and books with partly political and partly literary content. The prison administrations justified this on the grounds of security concerns, among other things.
Öcalan’s fellow prisoner does not receive Öcalan’s books
One of the complainants was Veysi Aktaş, who was imprisoned with Öcalan in the high-security prison on the prison island of Imrali until his release in July. Among other things, he was denied access to Öcalan’s book “Democratic Nation” and issues of the magazine “Democratic Modernity.” He filed the complaint with the ECtHR in 2016.
Another case concerned Turan Günana, who is serving a prison sentence in Kocaeli. In 2018, he was prohibited from receiving Öcalan’s “The Path of the Kurdistan Revolution” and issues of the newspaper “Yeni Yaşam,” among other things. This decision was also challenged by the ECtHR.
Other complainants included Ramazan Ilter in Menemen T-Type Prison, who was denied two novels by author Azra Kohen on the grounds of allegedly “obscene content”; Engin Gökoğlu in Tekirdağ T-Type Closed Prison No 2, who was denied copies of the newspapers “Kızılbayrak” and ‘Yüksel’ because, according to the authorities, they “glorified members of an organization”; Barış Inan in Kocaeli F-Type Closed Prison No. 2, who complained about being denied the newspaper Atılım, and Ibrahim Bektaş in Akhisar T-Type Prison, who was denied several books on the grounds of “obscene content.”
Plaintiffs receive compensation
In its ruling, the ECtHR pointed out that the authorities had not provided sufficient justification for the restrictions on freedom of expression. The blanket classification of writings as “terrorist propaganda” or “obscene” was not sufficient to justify interference with the prisoners’ rights. The ruling obliged Turkey to pay compensation to the plaintiffs.