A UK judge has turned down a request by the Turkish government for the extradition of a dispossessed media proprietor to Ankara for a trial. The judge deemed the application “politically motivated”.

Judge John Zani at Westminster magistrates court in London also said in a November 28 ruling that extraditing Hamdi Akin Ipek, as well as three other Turkish nationals, would expose them to the risk of serious mistreatment.

Ipek used to head Koza-Ipek Group, a holding that controlled media outlets including Bugun newspaper and the Kanalturk TV station. The outlets, along with the entire group, were confiscated by a Turkish court after allegations of participation in an attempt to topple the government in December 2013, when a scandal involving corruption claims and audio recordings of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan erupted.

The group’s newspapers and TV stations were seen as critical of the ruling regime amid the worsening row between Erdogan and self-exiled Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen and his followers, known as Gulenists. Following the failed coup of July 2016, Erdogan accused Gulen, who lives in the US, and his network of having orchestrated the botched attempt at overthrowing him and the government. Swathes of other businesses allegedly connected to Gulenists were then seized among a declared state of emergency.

Gulen has several times strenuously denied any involvement in the coup plot.

Zani said that if the four persons were returned to Turkey there would be a real risk of breaches of Article III of the European Convention of Human Rights, which states that no one should be subjected to torture, degrading treatment and punishment.

Series of refusals
The ruling is the latest in a series of refusals by UK courts to extradite suspects to Turkey. The country has become the biggest jailer of journalists in the world since the attempted putsch. Tens of thousands of lawyers, civil servants and other state workers have also been purged and many remain in prison. The emergency regime, which Erdogan has been accused of exploiting to go after dissident voices, lasted until July of this year after being extended several times.

Last year, the then Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim met UK PM Theresa May and asked her to extradite all individuals allegedly associated with the failed coup.

Speaking after the hearing, Ipek, told the Guardian: “The Turkish government has waged a campaign of harassment and intimidation against me, my family and my employees for the past three years, for no reason other than I am perceived as an opponent of the Erdogan regime.

“These attacks have seen the regime unlawfully seize the businesses and assets of the Koza-Ipek Group, which was founded by my father and has traded with an impeccable reputation for more than 70 years. The group’s media outlets have been closed down because our balanced coverage occasionally included material that was critical of the government. Worst of all, my brother, Tekin, was arrested and has been in prison for more than three years on baseless grounds and with no access to justice.

“In the last six months, these attacks have made their way to British shores. I have been followed in London and secretly filmed by those acting on behalf of the Erdogan regime. I have received dozens of death threats, provoked by the actions of those at the highest level of the Turkish government.

“There are thousands of other businessmen, judges, civil servants and journalists who are unable to make their case due to the collapse of democracy and the rule of law in Turkey. The human rights abuses taking place are unacceptable for any civilised country and action must be taken urgently to end this.”

"Perverse grounds"
The newspaper also quoted Michael Drury, a partner at the law firm BCL Solicitors LLP, who represented Ipek. He said: “Seldom can there have been a clearer case of a nation state persecuting three obviously innocent men on perverse grounds. The hatred shown by the government of Turkey towards its believed opponents was apparent in the evidence brought before the court where government officials have described followers of the teachings of Fethullah Gulen as ‘dogs’ and not worthy of living.

“The British public will find it surprising that a case like this was certified by the home secretary as fit for bringing before the court.”

Turkey’s justice minister, Abdulhamit Gul, said the UK court’s decision was unacceptable. In a tweet translated by BBC Monitoring, he said: “The Turkish judiciary’s extradition request is a requirement of international law and conventions. The UK judiciary’s decision for refusal has the characteristics of an assessment with political content. That is why it is impossible for us to accept the refusal decision... and its justification.

“Our expectation from the UK is to extradite all FETO [Fethullah Terror Organisation] member fugitive terrorists, as necessitated by international law and conventions, and to show its friendship and alliance in this way.”

Ipek denies any involvement in the 2016 coup attempt.