Court rejects release of 32-year prisoner despite top court ruling
A court has refused to release Hikmet Çalağan, who has spent more than 30 years in prison, despite a Constitutional Court ruling that his continued detention violates his rights, his lawyer said.
Çalağan was detained in İstanbul in Nov 1993 due to his alleged connection with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group and later sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of “disrupting the unity and integrity of the state."
Although Çalağan has completed the 30-year term that qualifies a life sentence convict to apply for release, he was not released. Authorities at the Türkoğlu Type-L No. 2 High Security Prison in Maraş have cited disciplinary sanctions, including solitary confinement penalties, as grounds for extending his detention.
His lawyer, Alişan Şahin, filed an individual application with the Constitutional Court in 2023, arguing that the continued imprisonment violated Çalağan’s rights. In 2024, the top court agreed, ruling that his prolonged detention was a violation.
However, Şahin said the lower courts and the Court of Cassation have failed to enforce the ruling. “The file was sent to the Kahramanmaraş Court of Penal Enforcement after the Constitutional Court’s ruling, but the decision was not recognized. Our appeal to the High Criminal Court was also dismissed, and the Court of Cassation resisted the Constitutional Court’s ruling.”
Şahin compared Çalağan’s case to that of the MP-elect Can Atalay, whose release was similarly blocked despite a Constitutional Court order and his election. “We filed a new application to the Constitutional Court, but nearly a year has passed and they have yet to issue a decision,” Şahin said.
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Questioning what compensation could make up for his client’s continued imprisonment, Şahin added, “We are not seeking damages, and we never asked for any. But we believe the Constitutional Court should correct this unlawful disregard of its own ruling. The court should issue a binding decision ensuring Çalağan’s immediate release. Ending such violations would contribute to the broader process we are currently witnessing and awaiting with hope.” (RT/VK)
