Published on 2 June 2025
SECOND SECTION
Application no. 40751/20
Ali KOCAMANOĞLU
against Türkiye
lodged on 7 September 2020
communicated on 12 May 2025
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns, under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, an alleged breach of the applicant’s right of access to a court owing to the Constitutional Court’s dismissal of his individual application based on a manifestly erroneous application of domestic legal provisions.
The applicant, who was a lieutenant colonel and the executive officer of the battleship TCG Turgutreis, was found guilty, under Article 137 of the Military Criminal Code, of causing significant damage to a ship as a result of negligence in duty or service on the night of the coup attempt of 15 July 2016 and was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment. On 19 April 2019 the Istanbul Regional Court of Appeal dismissed the applicant’s appeal against his conviction.
On 9 March 2020 the Constitutional Court dismissed the application for non-exhaustion of domestic remedies, holding that even though Law no. 7188 provided for a right to lodge a cassation appeal in respect of convictions for certain offences laid down in the Criminal Code, the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Meetings and Demonstration Marches Act, the applicant had failed to use that avenue.
The applicant argues that the Constitutional Court erroneously dismissed his application for failure to lodge a cassation appeal pursuant to Law no. 7188 as the offence of which he was found guilty was not amongst the offences stipulated in that Law. In his view, therefore, the Constitutional Court committed a manifest error in dismissing his application, which gave rise to a breach of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.
QUESTION TO THE PARTIES
Did the applicant have a fair hearing in the determination of the criminal charges against him in accordance with Article 6 § 1 of the Convention? In particular, has there been a breach of the applicant’s right of access to a court on account of the Constitutional Court’s decision dated 9 March 2020 whereby his individual application was found inadmissible owing to his alleged failure to exhaust domestic remedies by not lodging a cassation appeal under Law no. 7188 against his conviction under Article 137 of the Military Criminal Code (see, for general principles, Vegotex International S.A. v. Belgium [GC], no. 49812/09, § 133, 3 November 2022, and Zubac v. Croatia [GC], no. 40160/12, §§ 76-79, 5 April 2018)?