An appellate-level asylum council on Tuesday decided to grant political asylum to a second Turkish serviceman that fled to Greece aboard a military helicopter in July 2016, less than a month after a similar decision.
A total of eight Turkish army officers and NCOs fled to Greece aboard the chopper in the wake of a failed coup in the neighboring country.
Meanwhile, subsequent reports claimed that the leftist-rightist coalition government will again file an appeal against the decision, as it did in the case of the first Turkish officer granted asylum.
Tuesday’s decision reportedly relies on the same arguments detailed in the first, namely, concerns that guarantees of a fair and impartial in Turkey are absent, given the wholesale cashiering of judicial officials in the country since 2016, along with strong indications of political pressure and interventions by the executive branch towards the judiciary to punish alleged coup participants.
Members of the council also cited reports by Amnesty International, the Council of Europe and other international organizations on the state of human rights in Turkey after the coup attempt.
According to reports, the relevant asylum committee ruled that no substantive evidence was presented to prove that the asylum seeker participated in the coup.
