Holding banner calling on youth to join PKK is within freedom of expression: Europe's top rights court

Duvar English

Holding a banner that calls on the youth to join the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is within the freedom of expression, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled.

The court also sentenced Ankara to pay compensation to Seyfettin Demir, whose "right to a freedom of expression was violated" when Turkey sentenced him to prison over "committing a crime on behalf of a terrorist organization."

Demir was sentenced to six years and three months in prison over carrying a banner that read, "The youth to HPG ranks," which is an abbreviation of the PKK's People's Defence Forces, in a demonstration that he attended in the southern province of Mersin in 2008.

He was then arrested and was handed a prison sentence over "committing a crime on behalf of a terrorist organization without being a member of it."

Attending demonstration can't be proof of terrorist group membership, ECHR tells Turkey

Demir took the case to the ECHR upon exhausting all domestic legal means and the court issued its ruling on May 19, Mesopotamia Agency reported on Aug. 19.

Ankara was sentenced to pay 5,000 euros in compensation after the court ruled that it violated the 11th Article of the European Convention on Human Rights.