The act of cutting a cake for the PKK leader’s birthday was seen as propaganda. Criminal conviction! Violation of freedom of expression
JUDGMENT
Ete v. Turkey 06.09.2022 (app. no. 28154/20)
SUMMARY
Cutting a cake and handling it at the PKK leader’s birthday. Propaganda, criminal conviction and freedom of expression.
The applicant was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment for propagating in favor of a terrorist organization for cutting and distributing pieces of cake on plates at an event celebrating the birthday of the PKK leader. She brought an action for violation of freedom of expression.
The ECtHR found that these acts as a whole could not be considered to embody a call to violence, armed resistance or rebellion, nor did they have the characteristics of hate speech. It held that the applicant’s conviction did not pursue a legitimate aim or constitute a social imperative.
The Court found a violation of freedom of expression (Article 10 of the ECHR) and awarded 2,000 euros for moral damage and 1,500 euros for costs.
PROVISION
Article 10
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The applicant, Ms Fehime Ete, is a national of Türkiye who was born in 1960 and lives in Siirt.
The case concerns the applicant’s conviction and sentence to a suspended ten-month term of
imprisonment, on a charge of propaganda in support of a terrorist organisation for her acts during a
demonstration in Siirt to celebrate the birthday of the leader of the PKK (Workers’ Party of
Kurdistan, an illegal armed organisation).
Relying on Articles 10 (freedom of expression) and 11 (freedom of assembly and association), the
applicant alleges that her conviction infringed her rights to freedom of expression and freedom of
assembly.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT…
Article 10:
The applicant’s prosecution and resulting conviction and sentence on a charge of propagandising for a terrorist organisation had amounted to an interference with the exercise of her right to freedom of expression. The interference had pursued the legitimate aims of protecting national security and territorial integrity and preventing disorder and crime.
The Assize Court had based the applicant’s conviction and sentence on the acts of cutting slices of a cake purportedly prepared in celebration of the birthday of the leader of the PKK and handing them out on plates. Those acts viewed as a whole could not be seen as incorporating a call to violence, armed resistance or insurrection or as constituting hate speech; this was the central consideration.
Thus, in the circumstances of the case, the Government had not shown that the impugned measure had been a response to a pressing social need, proportionate to the legitimate aims pursued or necessary in a democratic society.
Conclusion: violation (unanimously)
Just satisfaction:
non-pecuniary damage: EUR 2,000
costs and expenses: EUR 1,500
