ABTTF President: “Our country’s failure to execute the European Court of Human Rights’ judgments regarding our community’s associations for 18 years is one of the most obvious examples of the serious decline in the rule of law and the politicisation of judicial decisions. By consistently ignoring the warnings of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on this matter, our country is playing for time, showing no intention of executing the relevant judgments, thereby disregarding the rule of law and international law.”
Former Greek Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Evangelos Venizelos, responding to journalist’ questions about the One-member Magistrates’ Court of Athens’ judgment that four defendants were guilty in the wiretapping scandal case, said that glaring wounds in the rule of law, such as wiretapping, would not be healed simply because the government and parliamentary majority wanted them to be.
Venizelos noted that the conviction handed down in the case concerning the illegal software known as ‘‘Predator’’ demonstrated that the judiciary could assert its institutional will even at the level of the court of first instance. He added that the evidence presented pointed to institutional crime and left clear clues as to how the state handled a case that touched on the very essence of the rule of law.
“The statements made by Mr Venizelos, our country'’ former deputy prime minister and a professor of constitutional law, regarding the systematic and institutional violation of the rule of law by the government are nothing new. The government’s attempts to influence the judiciary in the illegal wiretapping scandal constitute a direct blow to the rule of law and are significant in terms of demonstrating the politicisation of the law in our country in recent years. Our country’s failure to execute the European Court of Human Rights’ judgments regarding our community’s associations for 18 years is one of the most obvious examples of the serious decline in the rule of law and the politicisation of judicial decisions. By consistently ignoring the warnings of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on this matter, our country is playing for time, showing no intention of executing the relevant judgments, thereby disregarding the rule of law and international law’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
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