In times of war, the law falls silent. In times of peace, tyranny can speak louder still.

This is the story of Ruhi Hallaçoğlu — a lawyer, a man of the law — who became its victim. Born in 1975, a member of the Adana Bar Association, he believed that words and principles could hold power. The Turkish state proved otherwise.

Hallaçoğlu’s sufferings was no accident. It was part of a systematic purge, engineered in the aftermath of the failed 2016 coup, through which the Turkish government dismantled the legal profession, brick by brick, in the name of fighting terrorism.

Since July 2016, over 1,700 lawyers have been detained, more than 700 arrested, and at least 553 convicted, largely for imagined affiliations with “terrorist” networks. Hundreds now live in exile, stateless and silenced. Others were less fortunate. Lawyers Fethi Ünsal, Murat Korkmaz, Metin Yücel, Ebru Timtik, and Nesimi Yalçınoğlu died in prison cells — untried, unheard, or unheard-of.

This is the machine Ruhi Hallaçoğlu was fed into.

The Arrest

On 8 December 2016, he was detained on accusations of ties to the so-called “FETÖ/PDY” — a catch-all label applied to teachers, judges, doctors, and dissenters. What mattered wasn’t evidence, but perceived “proximity” to the wrong books, apps, or people. He was thrown into Osmaniye No. 1 T-Type Prison — a concrete warehouse for political undesirables.

The charges were vague, the process slow, the walls high. He remained locked away for over three years.

The Cages

The European Court of Human Rights in the case İlerde and Others v. Türkiye (App. no. 35614/19, Hallaçoğlu was one of the applicants) described the prison conditions in stark terms — but the true cruelty lies in the numbers:

• Cells for seven were packed with twenty-five men.
• Floor space per prisoner dropped to 3.98 m² — a dimension more suited to storage than human dignity.
• Exercise, daylight, and fresh air were rare events. One hour a week, perhaps. Most weeks, none.

He asked to be moved. He appealed to enforcement judges. He petitioned the prison board. Every door was locked from the inside.

The Court found Türkiye in violation of Article 3: inhumane and degrading treatment.

The Wire in the Walls & Surveillance by Design

In prison, the last lifeline is the lawyer-client bond — the quiet, protected space where defense consultations are still possible. For Hallaçoğlu, even that was severed.

In Hallaçoğlu v. Türkiye (App. no. 24514/19), the European Court examined how Turkish prison authorities monitored and recorded correspondence and consultations between Hallaçoğlu and his lawyer. This was no secret operation. It was legal — made so by Emergency Decree No. 676, which suspended long-standing rights under the pretext of martial necessity.

The Turkish Constitutional Court said it was “not a violation.” The European Court saw otherwise: this was a breach of Article 8, the right to privacy — and by extension to a fair trial.

In plain words: even a lawyer could no longer speak privately to his own lawyer. A system that intrusively monitors defense consultations cannot claim to be maintaining justice..

Law by Algorithm: The Kolay Judgment

In Kolay and Others v. Türkiye (App. nos. 15231/17 and 283 others), Hallaçoğlu was just one among hundreds. Their names varied, but their cases did not. Detention orders were issued en masse. Courts copied and pasted justifications: “nature of offenses” “risk of flight,” “the gravity of the charges.” The Turkish judiciary has become an automated crude assembly line of punishments.

The European Court again found a violation of Article 5 §§1 and 3: unlawful and arbitrary detention. The Turkish state had abandoned individualized assessment. The presumption of innocence was replaced by guilt by association.

Hallaçoğlu sat in a cell, year after year, while judges rubber-stamped extensions. There was no trial, only time.

Resistance in a Concrete Box

Most people break in prison. Ruhi Hallaçoğlu wrote legal briefs.

He fought every measure: the overcrowding, the censorship, the surveillance. He appealed — and was denied. He filed constitutional complaints — and was ignored. He turned to Strasbourg. There, at last, he was heard.

He has no political party behind him. He did not march in the streets or carry a flag. He resisted by insisting on the enforcement of and adherence to law, even when the law had abandoned him.

His struggle persists, is quiet, procedural, and heroic.

A Final Reckoning

When a state no longer allows its lawyers to have legal consultations in confidence, the courtroom becomes open theatre.
When prison cells become warehouses, the justice system becomes a production line of unconsidered and ill-considered injustices.
When people die behind bars — like Ebru Timtik, who starved to death demanding a fair trial — justice itself dies with them.

The inhumane treatment of Ruhi Hallaçoğlu is not exceptional. It represents a typical template for tyrannical intolerance, a blueprint of the victimisation of civilised dissent.

And yet, in his filings, in his calm insistence on rights, in his refusal to disappear into silence, he has made a mark. His cases now live in the records of the European Court of Human Rights — and in the historical ledger of a profession betrayed by its own state.

The system tried to erase him.
He wrote himself back in.

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Categories: Turkey Human Rights Blog, Unjust / Wrongful Convictions