Date posted: November 6, 2025

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on Monday rejected an appeal by the Turkish government to refer to the Grand Chamber its ruling that allows the retrial of 239 people convicted on terrorism charges for alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing Turkish media.

Turkey’s appeal challenged the ECtHR’s July 22 ruling, which found that the country violated the rights of these individuals by failing to ensure fair trials and imposing criminal penalties without a clear legal basis. The court’s decision had provided for fair compensation for non-pecuniary damages and allowed the criminal proceedings to be reopened if requested within one year.

The ruling had also emphasized that the evidence used against the applicants does not justify their convictions. Many had been convicted based on the use of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app that Turkish authorities claim was exclusively used by members of the Gülen movement, as well as membership in affiliated trade unions and associations, witness statements, banking activities at the now-shuttered Bank Asya, possession of related publications or audio-visual material, donations, residence in student houses or dormitories and communications via other messaging applications, such as Kakao Talk or Eagle.

Legal analysts noted that the rejection by the court significantly expands the precedent set by the 2023 Yalçınkaya decision. It could affect over 10,000 pending cases, allowing appeals and reassessments of defenses and creating a significant additional workload for the courts.

In a pilot judgment in September 2023, the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR ruled that Turkey had violated three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of former teacher Yüksel Yalçınkaya, who was sentenced to more than six years in prison on terrorism charges due to his use of ByLock.

The “pilot judgment” procedure allows the court to address systematic rights violations without re-examining thousands of identical cases. After a ruling, the court forwards similar cases to the government concerned urging broader remedies.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle.

Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and a conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan began to target the movement’s members. He designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016 and intensified the crackdown on it following an abortive putsch in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

According to the latest figures from the Justice Ministry, more than 126,000 people have been convicted for alleged links to the Gülen movement since 2016, with 11,085 still in prison. Legal proceedings are ongoing for over 24,000 individuals, while another 58,000 remain under investigation nearly a decade later.

Source: Turkish Minute

Tags: Persecution of Hizmet by Erdogan |