Human rights lawyer tells ECHR: ‘
This court knows very well how disgraceful Turkey’s record
on freedom of expression is’ report independent
Amal Clooney has accused Turkey of having double standards over freedom of expression for defending a man accused of denying the Armenian genocide.
On Wednesday, the human rights lawyer and Geoffrey Robertson QC stood before Europe’s top human rights court to represent Armenia in their case against Doğu Perinçek, the leader of the Turkish Workers’ Party.
Perinçek was convicted of denying the 2015 Armenian genocide in 2007 after comments he made in 2005 where he said the legal definition of Armenian genocide was an “international lie”.
His conviction was later overturned following an appeal at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), who ruled his right to free speech had been violated. Turkey was a co-defendant in that case.
Arguing against the appeal in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Ms Clooney said the judge’s decision was “simply wrong”.