ABTTF President: “While examining the issues pertaining to the execution of the ECtHR judgments, I would like to remind Charakopoulos of the Bekir-Ousta cases, which have been pending to be executed for 14 years. In particular, we expect Charakopoulos to bring this issue to the parliamentary agenda before the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will conduct a review on 6-8 December 2022.
Chairman of the Special Committee of the Greek Parliament on monitoring the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) New Democracy Larissa Deputy Maximos Charakopoulos, told in a parliamentary commission meeting that since Greece is among the top 10 countries that do not execute the ECtHR judgments, they should find out the cause of the cases against Greece at the ECtHR and improve it.
Charakopoulos indicated that when one looks at the top 10 countries that do not execute the ECtHR judgments, one would realise that most of those on the list of these 10 countries were not even EU countries but had clearly and systematically violated human rights, underlining that it was not honourable to be among these countries.
In a report published in the newspaper Eleftheria, it is noted that Deputy Charakopoulos, in his speech at the parliamentary commission meeting, said that following the exhaustion of domestic remedies, they should examine the applications made to the ECtHR along with why the decisions of the national courts in national law have been appealed and why following the decision of the Court of Cassation, they are applying to the ECtHR and that legislative intervention would be required afterwards.
In addition, Charakopoulos noted that in numerous cases referred to the ECtHR, because of the conditions of sentence and detention in Greek prisons, Greece had been convicted in violation of Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights (‘‘no punishment without law’’) and Article 8 (‘‘right to respect for private and family life’’). As a result of this, he indicated that they had contributed to the draft law prepared by the Ministry of Citizen Protection.
“Chairman of the Special Permanent Committee on monitoring the judgments of the ECtHR Charakopoulos Deputy Charakopoulos says that our country Greece is among the top 10 countries that do not execute the ECtHR judgments and that legislative intervention is required. Yes, our country unfortunately has a very bad record with respect to the execution of the ECtHR judgments. Our country has not executed the ECtHR judgments as regards the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases, which include the Xanthi Turkish Union in Western Thrace which had been dissolved as a result of the word ‘Turkish’ in its name along with the Cultural Association of Turkish Women of the Prefecture of Rodopi and the Evros Prefecture Minority Youth Association which had not been registered, since 2008. There are numerous decisions of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in which it has asked Greece to execute the ECtHR judgments in this group of cases, but as a result, no steps have been taken. In the Bekir-Ousta group of cases, it was stated that a legislative change was needed first in our country, and after the law change in 2017, the applications made to the national courts were again inconclusive. Finally, on 31 August, the Court of Cassation rejected the appeals of our Rodopi and Evros associations. Article 11 of the ECHR on freedom of association is continued to be violated in this group of cases. Our country needs to take concrete steps along with legislative intervention and show willingness to execute the ECtHR judgments. I would also like to remind Committee Chairman Charakopoulos of the Bekir-Ousta cases, which have been pending to be executed for 14 years while examining the issues pertaining to the execution of the ECtHR judgments, especially before the examination of the Committee of Ministers on 6-8 December 2022, we expect Harakopoulos to bring this issue to the parliamentary agenda’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
