Kızılyaprak v. Turkey (No. 2) (9844/02)

Date	20080304
Article	6(1)
Decision	violation

Violation of Article 6 § 1 (fairness)

Kızılyaprak v. Turkey (No. 2) (no. 9844/02)

The applicant, Zeynal Abidin Kızılyaprak, is a Turkish national who was born in 1960 and lives in Istanbul.

The case concerned the applicant’s complaints about his criminal conviction for disseminating separatist propaganda on account of the publication of two articles in the newspaper Özgür Bakış. Relying in particular on Article 6 (right to a fair hearing), he complained that the proceedings against him had been unfair in that he had not been notified of the dates of the hearings in the court that had convicted him and had not had the opportunity to defend himself, particularly after the public prosecutor had submitted his opinion on the merits of the case.

The Court held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 6 on account of the failure to summon the applicant to appear before the court in question, and awarded him EUR 2,000 for non-pecuniary damage. (The judgment is available only in French.)