The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has ruled that the imprisonment of Akın Öztürk, former commander of the Turkish Air Force, is arbitrary and violates international law, urging his immediate release. Mr. Öztürk, 72, was arrested two days after the 2016 coup attempt despite initial reports acknowledging his efforts to prevent it. Convicted in 2017 and serving a life sentence, he was denied due process, subjected to torture—including severe beatings, forced nudity, and sleep deprivation—and convicted based on coerced testimony and manipulated evidence. The UN panel condemned Turkey’s failure to ensure a fair trial, criticized the judiciary for accepting evidence obtained through torture, and called for compensation and accountability.
This opinion is crucial, as Mr. Öztürk was accused of leading the coup attempt, which the Erdoğan government claims to the Gülen Movement. However, the UN Working Group found that “at the moment of his arrest on 17 July 2016 [Mr. Öztürk] had returned to his home after attempting to prevent the coup, and there is no indication that he engaged in any criminal activity between the time he left Akinci Air Base and when he was summoned to provide testimony” (§75). In other words, according to the UN’s findings, the Turkish military’s highest-ranking officer allegedly chosen by the Gülen Movement to orchestrate the coup was, in reality, working to prevent it.
The UN Working Group’s opinion is particularly timely as the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights prepares to reevaluate the Yasak v. Türkiye case. In its earlier ruling, the lower Chamber appeared to accept the Erdoğan government’s official narrative on the organization and execution of the July 15 coup attempt without scrutiny. The decision treated the applicant’s ties to the Gülen Movement as evidence of terrorist membership (§§ 164, 165, 180), aligning with Ankara’s claim that members of the movement had infiltrated security institutions and used state weapons against civilians during the coup (§ 132). However, in its landmark opinion, the UN Working Group refutes this premise, concluding that the very individual the Gülen Movement allegedly appointed to lead the coup was, in fact, unaware of it and actively working to prevent its progression under the instructions of elected officials.
Another sobering finding of the UN Working Group is the brutal conditions under which incriminating testimonies have been routinely extracted by Turkish authorities. The UN body detailed the torture and ill-treatment inflicted not only on Mr. Öztürk but also on individuals who provided statements against him—many of whom later retracted their testimony once in court. Witnesses described in detail how they were tortured by police before being forced to sign prewritten statements without even reading them (§ 55). The UN panel ultimately ruled that the admission of evidence obtained through torture or ill-treatment is fundamentally incompatible with the core principles of a fair trial, noting that such practices not only violate legal and moral standards but also undermine the credibility of the entire judicial process (§ 83). As the Grand Chamber of the European Court reviews the Yasak v. Türkiye case, it must take into account this deeply flawed judicial practice exposed by the UN Working Group—especially given that the incriminating statements against Mr. Yasak do not actually pertain to his own actions.
The Erdoğan government’s struggle to provide a timely response to the UN Working Group—despite having prosecuted Mr. Öztürk for nearly a decade—is telling. After failing to meet the initial two-month deadline, the government requested a one-month extension, only to miss that deadline as well, ultimately submitting its response late. This delay underscores how the regime falters when subjected to objective and impartial scrutiny by an international body.
Last but not the least, the UN body's emphasis on the widespread or systematic human rights violations suffered by Mr. Öztürk is critical, as it aligns with many human rights reports indicating that the scale, scope, severity, and prevalence of such abuses in Turkey have reached an alarming level—potentially amounting to crimes against humanity. By drawing attention to the sharp rise in cases of arbitrary detention in Turkey and the recurring patterns among them, the Working Group warns that mass imprisonment or other severe deprivations of liberty, in violation of fundamental rules of international law, may constitute crimes against humanity (§ 87). Notably, in Mr. Öztürk’s case, arbitrary imprisonment was accompanied by torture and ill-treatment (§ 83).
The glaring inconsistencies in Erdoğan’s official narrative of the July 15 coup attempt—through which he claims victimhood and justifies repression—have long been evident to those familiar with the events before, during, and after the coup. The fact that a semi-judicial UN body has now highlighted and documented these discrepancies is highly significant.
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