Turkey to pass Khashoggi case to Saudi Arabia, 'complies with' ECtHR judgment on Kavala

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Turkey will hand over the case concerning the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia, the minister of justice has confirmed.

"We will give a positive opinion on the transfer of this case," Bekir Bozdağ told reporters today (April 1) in the capital city of Ankara.

At the latest hearing of the case yesterday, the prosecutor's office demanded the case be handed over to Saudi Arabia as per a request by the kingdom and red notice on the 26 absent suspects be lifted.

Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post, was killed in October 2018  in Saudi Arabia's consulate in İstanbul, where he had gone for paperwork for his impending marriage.

While there is no special mutual legal assistance agreement between Riyadh and Ankara, Turkey may hand over the case as per an international mutual assistance agreement, Bozdağ said.

In such a case, the court in Turkey will halt the trial and may drop the case or continue the trial depending on the outcome of the trial in Saudi Arabia, he noted, adding that passing the case will not remove the jurisdiction of Turkey's courts.

Kavala and Demirtaş

Responding to a question about the situation of Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş and rights advocate Osman Kavala, both of whom are kept behind bars despite ECtHR judgments, Bozdağ disclosed some figures on the ECtHR cases concerning Turkey.

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which oversees the enforcement of the ECtHR judgments, acknowledged that Turkey has enforced 3,745 out of 4,256 judgments while the examination of 511 cases is still underway, said the minister.

"We see that 87.99 percent of the ECtHR judgments against Turkey have been executed so far. This doesn't mean that the others haven't been executed. The inspection process is underway," he remarked. "We have executed them as well; the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe should register that these are executed. The registration process continues. The average of all countries is 80.54 percent."

About the arrest of Kavala, Bozdağ said Turkey had complied with the ECtHR verdict for his release, but his arrest continues because of the charges in other cases.

However, the European court had stated in its rulings about both Kavala and Demirtaş that the rulings covered all cases against them.

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(AS/VK)