Kavala v. Turkey, No. 28749/18, ECtHR (Grand Chamber), 11 July 2022

Infringement proceedings against Turkey for failure to abide by ECtHR’s final judgment explicitly indicating applicant’s immediate release.

Art. 46 ECHR
Art. 5 ECHR
Art. 18 ECHR

1. The whole structure of the Convention rests on the general assumption that public authorities in the member States act in good faith. That structure includes the supervision procedure and the execution of judgments should also involve good faith and take place in a manner compatible with the “conclusions and spirit” of the judgment. The good faith obligation is paramount where the Court has found a violation of Article 18 ECHR, the object and purpose of which is to prohibit the misuse of power.

2. Failure to implement a final, binding judicial decision would be incompatible with the principle of the rule of law which the Contracting States undertook to respect when they ratified the Convention.
(In the present case, the Grand Chamber held that Turkey failed to fulfil its obligation under Article 46 § 1 ECHR to abide by the Kavala v. Turkey judgment of 10 December 2019, which had found that the applicant’s pre-trial detention violated Article 5 §§ 1 and 4 and of Article 18 taken together with Article 5 § 1 ECHR).