- The Media and Law Studies Association’s legal unit has filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that old communications records and peaceful activities cited as grounds for journalist Yıldız Tar’s detention were insufficient to support a charge of “membership in an armed terrorist organization.”
- The application said Tar was detained without any current or concrete facts being presented against him and that his journalism, participation in meetings and freedom of association were used as grounds for depriving him of his liberty.
ISTANBUL — The Media and Law Studies Association’s (MLSA) legal unit has applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) over journalist Yıldız Tar’s detention for about 100 days.
The application said Tar’s detention on a charge of “membership in an armed terrorist organization,” and the continuation of his detention, as well as the search of his home, the seizure of his digital materials and the use of his journalism and peaceful civil society activities as evidence against him violated rights protected under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), including the rights to liberty and security, privacy, freedom of expression and the press, peaceful assembly and freedom of association.
The application also argued that the restrictions imposed on those rights violated Article 18 of the ECHR, which prohibits restrictions on Convention rights from being applied for purposes other than those for which they were prescribed.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into Tar on Feb. 17, 2025, over alleged “membership in an organization.” As part of the investigation, police officers raided and searched Tar’s home in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, in the early hours of Feb. 18.
Police officers seized his phone, laptop, audio recorder, flash drive and other digital materials. Tar was taken into custody the same day and transferred to the Istanbul Police Department’s Counterterrorism Branch.
The accusations against Tar were based primarily on telephone conversations dating from 2012 and 2013, two text messages sent to him and an audio recording obtained through surveillance.
The ECtHR application said the records concerned university events, peaceful demonstrations, meetings of the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), a Turkish umbrella group bringing together a range of left-wing and civil society organizations, and Tar’s journalistic activities.
No current, concrete organizational ties demonstrated
In a statement to police officers on Feb. 19, 2025, Tar said nearly 13 years had passed since many of the communications cited against him and that he could not recall some of the conversations in detail. He said the records contained no indication of violence, organizational instructions or evidence that he was part of the hierarchical structure of an armed organization.
The ECtHR application said Tar attended several meetings of the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK) in 2012, either as a journalist or a participant, and had not attended HDK meetings since 2013.
It said the HDK was a platform bringing together various political parties, labor unions, associations, civil society organizations and individuals, adding that there was no court order shutting down the HDK and no final court ruling establishing that it was part of the PKK/KCK.
Tar was formally arrested and jailed on Feb. 22 by the Istanbul 6th Criminal Judgeship of Peace. In its ruling, the judgeship said Tar had “participated extensively in HDK meetings.”
Tar’s defense lawyers said attendance at several HDK meetings could not be characterized as “extensive” activity and argued that there was no current and concrete evidence linking Tar to the hierarchical structure of an armed organization, nor any evidence that he had undertaken an organizational role or acted under organizational instructions.
Journalistic activities cited as part of accusations
The ECtHR application said some of the communications records cited as grounds for the accusations were directly related to Tar’s journalistic work.
In a phone call dated Oct. 26, 2012, Tar was said to have provided journalist Ruken Tunçel, who was working for T24 at the time, with information about student protests at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. In another call on May 1, 2013, Tar, while covering International Workers’ Day demonstrations, provided journalist Derya Okatan with information about a police intervention at the headquarters of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK). The information was later used in a news report published by Bianet.
The application stressed that the conversations contained no calls for violence, organizational instructions or content indicating a hierarchical link to an armed organization.
It also said press statements, university events and public demonstrations that Tar attended while he was a student were included in the investigation. The application said those activities were peaceful and that there was no concrete evidence showing that Tar had engaged in violence or acted on the instructions of a terrorist organization.
Detention rulings relied on general grounds
An appeal by Tar against his detention was rejected by the Istanbul 20th Criminal Court of First Instance on March 5, 2025. Tar’s defense lawyers argued that the records underlying the accusations were dated, that there was no risk of flight or evidence tampering, and that the authorities had failed to explain why less restrictive measures would have been insufficient.
At a detention review on March 19, 2025, the court again ordered Tar’s continued detention. The ECtHR application said this and subsequent rulings failed to identify any concrete risk of flight or evidence tampering specific to Tar’s circumstances and instead repeated general grounds such as the nature of the alleged offense, the severity of the potential sentence and the state of the evidence.
On May 8, 2025, the Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction, ordered the case transferred to Ankara and ordered Tar’s continued detention.
After the case was transferred to Ankara, the Ankara 17th High Criminal Court ordered Tar’s release on May 30, 2025. Tar had therefore spent about 100 days in pretrial detention.
ECtHR application alleges violations under five Convention provisions
MLSA’s legal unit said Tar’s right to liberty and security under Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated. The application argued that there were no concrete facts establishing reasonable suspicion sufficient to justify his detention and that rulings extending his detention did not provide individualized and sufficient reasons.
It also said Tar’s rights to respect for his private life, home and correspondence under Article 8 had been violated by the search of his home, the seizure of his digital materials and the use of old communications records in the investigation.
The application said the use of Tar’s journalistic activities as grounds for the accusations and his detention violated his freedom of expression and freedom of the press under Article 10, while treating his participation in peaceful assemblies and civil society activities as criminal conduct violated his freedom of assembly and association under Article 11.
It further argued that the measures, in connection with Articles 5, 10 and 11, violated Article 18 of the Convention, which prohibits restrictions on protected rights from being applied for purposes other than those for which they were prescribed.
The criminal case against Tar on a charge of “membership in an organization” remains pending before the Ankara 17th High Criminal Court.
