- The Media and Law Studies Association’s (MLSA) Legal Unit has filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the prosecution of lawyer and human rights defender Nurcan Kaya on a charge of “membership in a terrorist organization” and the judicial control measures imposed on her.
- The application said Kaya’s work as a lawyer, her academic activities and her human rights advocacy had been made the subject of criminal allegations.
- It also noted that Kaya was subjected for nearly three months to a house arrest measure enforced through electronic monitoring and remains under a ban on traveling abroad. The application said the travel ban prevents her from taking part in international professional and academic activities.
- MLSA also emphasized that the restriction was imposed again despite an earlier ruling by Turkey’s Constitutional Court finding that a travel ban of the same nature had violated freedom of expression.
ISTANBUL — The Media and Law Studies Association’s (MLSA) Legal Unit has filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the criminal proceedings against Nurcan Kaya, a lawyer registered with the Diyarbakır Bar Association, researcher, academic and human rights defender, as well as the judicial control measures imposed on her and her subsequent conviction.
The application argues that Kaya’s professional and civil society activities were used as grounds for a charge of “membership in a terrorist organization,” that she was subjected to nearly three months of house arrest and that she remains under a ban on traveling abroad. MLSA said the measures violated several of Kaya’s fundamental rights.
An investigation was launched against Kaya on Feb. 17, 2025, on suspicion of “membership in a terrorist organization.” As part of the investigation, her home and law office in Diyarbakır, a major city in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey, were searched, and her phone, computer and other digital materials were seized.
Kaya was taken into custody and transferred to Istanbul.
Phone calls and 100 lira donation cited in case
As part of the investigation, Kaya was questioned about 15 phone calls dating from 2012 to 2014, an expert opinion she provided on minority rights and a 100 Turkish lira money transfer she made on Jan. 2, 2015, to the Rojava (West) Aid and Solidarity Association.
The ECHR application said the phone calls concerned project and grant work, academic activities, minority schools, education in the mother tongue and human rights meetings conducted with academics, lawyers, colleagues and civil society representatives. Kaya argued that none of the conversations involved violence, criminal activity or organizational instructions.
Kaya was also questioned about an expert opinion she gave on Oct. 7, 2013, concerning the budgets, legal status, educational materials and practical problems faced by minority schools. She said the remarks were part of her long-standing work on minority and education rights.
The application said the 100 lira payment to the Rojava (West) Aid and Solidarity Association was intended to support humanitarian assistance for people who had arrived in Turkey from Kobani, particularly children and infants.
It also said the association was operating legally at the time after obtaining the necessary permits from Turkey’s Interior Ministry.
Kaya confined to her home for nearly three months
Istanbul’s 6th Criminal Judgeship of Peace ruled on Feb. 22, 2025, that Kaya be placed under house arrest with electronic monitoring. She was monitored with an electronic ankle bracelet and was unable to leave her home for nearly three months.
Kaya’s objection to the measure was rejected. In an individual application filed with Turkey’s Constitutional Court on March 14, 2025, she argued that there was no concrete evidence establishing strong suspicion of a crime, that the activities cited against her consisted solely of her legal, academic and human rights work, and that the house arrest measure effectively prevented her from carrying out her professional activities.
The ECHR application said the nearly three-month restriction prevented Kaya from practicing law in the ordinary course and from participating in professional, academic and civil society activities outside the city.
Istanbul’s 13th High Criminal Court lifted the house arrest measure on May 15, 2025. The court, however, imposed a weekly reporting requirement and a ban on traveling abroad.
Travel ban prevents participation in international program
In an appeal seeking the lifting of her travel ban, Kaya said she had a permanent residence, had complied with all judicial control obligations since the beginning of the investigation and had not engaged in any conduct suggesting a risk of flight or tampering with evidence.
Kaya also told the court that she had been invited to speak at an international program organized by the European Endowment for Democracy from June 30 to July 6, 2025. She was unable to attend because of the ban on traveling abroad.
The ECHR application said the travel restriction, which was not limited to a specific country, trip or period, prevented Kaya from attending meetings and conferences that form a routine part of her legal practice, academic work and international human rights activities.
The weekly reporting requirement imposed on Kaya was later lifted, but the travel ban remained in place. Kaya filed multiple applications in 2025 and 2026 seeking to have the restriction lifted, but her requests were rejected.
Constitutional Court previously found similar travel ban violated free expression
A travel ban previously imposed on Kaya in a separate criminal investigation was found by Turkey’s Constitutional Court on Jan. 25, 2024, to have violated her freedom of expression.
Kaya said that despite citing that ruling in her objections in the current case, a restriction of the same nature was imposed on her again.
On July 4, 2025, Kaya filed a second individual application with the Constitutional Court over the travel ban and weekly reporting requirement. She also requested an interim measure and priority review. The court rejected the request for an interim measure on Nov. 5, 2025, but did not issue a ruling on the merits of the application.
Kaya asked the Constitutional Court on July 28, 2026, for information on the status of her application but had received no response by the time the ECHR application was filed.
Kaya sentenced to 6 years, 3 months in prison
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment against Kaya on May 7, 2025, on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “financing terrorism.” The indictment was accepted by Istanbul’s 13th High Criminal Court.
On April 30, 2026, the court sentenced Kaya to 6 years and 3 months in prison on the charge of “membership in a terrorist organization.” It ruled that there was no need to impose a sentence on the charge of financing terrorism.
In its conviction, the court also considered the years-old phone calls and the 100 lira transfer to the Rojava (West) Aid and Solidarity Association. Kaya said she had no organizational contact, role, instruction-based relationship or hierarchical ties with the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK) or the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK).
Kaya’s appeal against the conviction remains pending before the Istanbul Regional Court of Appeals. In her appeal, she also requested that the ban on traveling abroad be lifted.
ECHR application alleges violations of seven rights
In its application to the European Court of Human Rights, MLSA’s Legal Unit argued that the continuing ban on Kaya traveling abroad violated her right to respect for private life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It said the restriction affected Kaya’s social and professional relationships abroad as well as her ordinary daily life.
The application said the use of Kaya’s academic, legal and human rights work as grounds for a criminal investigation, together with her inability to attend international meetings and programs because of the travel ban, violated her freedom of expression under Article 10.
MLSA also argued that treating a donation to the humanitarian work of a legally operating association years later as evidence supporting a charge of membership in a terrorist organization had a chilling effect on freedom of assembly and association under Article 11.
The application further alleged a violation of Article 13, in conjunction with Articles 8, 10 and 11, on the grounds that the domestic legal remedies Kaya pursued to have the travel ban lifted did not provide effective protection capable of ending the continuing interference with her rights in a timely manner.
MLSA’s Legal Unit also argued that although the measures were formally imposed to secure the conduct of the criminal proceedings, their practical effect was to restrict Kaya’s professional, academic and human rights activities. On that basis, it alleged a violation of Article 18 in conjunction with Articles 8, 10 and 11.
The application also raised claims under Articles 5(1)(c) and 5(4) over Kaya’s nearly three months of electronically monitored house arrest; under Article 6 over the grounds for her conviction and the courts’ assessment of her defense statements; and under Article 7 over what MLSA described as the retroactive attribution of criminal significance to lawful activities.
The ban on Kaya traveling abroad remained in force as of the date the ECHR application was filed.
