Extradition of Nurettin Oral to Turkey would be against the international human rights conventions as well as against the European Human Rights Court practice, warned Ombudswoman Lora Vidović in her letter to the Minister of Justice Dražen Bošnjaković, sent on 12 January 2018.
The case is the subject of the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugee Status, 1957 European Convention on Extradition, European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, European Human Rights Court practice (Garayev v. Azerbaijan, Soering v. United Kingdom) and the Law on International Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.
Switzerland has granted political asylum to Nurettin Oral, a Kurdish national, who was arrested in Croatia based on the Turkish warrant. The Croatian Supreme Court on 12th December 2017 approved his extradition to Turkey, requested on accusation that in 1999 he fought for the Kurdish National Party PKK, which is in Turkey considered to be a terroristic organisation. However, numerous international organisations report on disturbing human rights violations of detainees in Turkey, especially after the 2016 coup d’état, when the obligation for the implementation of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was suspended.
It is undisputable that an extradition in the concrete case would be in contradiction with the international human rights standards, especially regarding the principle of „non refoulement“, prescribed, amongst other, by the Article 6 of the Act on International and Temporary Protection, concluded the Ombudswoman.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court in its decision from 25 January 2018 has temporary postponed the execution of the Supreme Court ruling as well as the Minister Bošnjaković’s decision thereof, until the termination of the court proceeding instigated by the barrister of Nurettin Oral.