Murat Arslan

He is married and father of two children.[1]

He graduated from the faculty of law of the Istanbul University in 1999. In 2001 he began to work at the court of accounts. He has been the chair of YARSAV from 16 March 2011 to 23 July 2016. YARSAV was closed by a decree published in the Official Gazette on the 23 July 2016.[2] On 26 October 2016, he was arrested.[3] On the 9 October 2017, he was awarded the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.[1] The announcement of the Prize, which honours human rights defenders in Europe and beyond, cited his work to uphold the independence of the judiciary in Turkey.[4] Arslan was also accused of supporting the FETÖ.[5]

In January 2019, Judge Arslan have been sentenced to 10 years in prison for "participation to a terrorist organization". No violent action or call for violence was reported, the accusation being based on an anonymous denunciation and the presence of ByLock on his smartphone, an application he denies(as all of them from Gulen Movement) having installed on his phone. Just asking why he is having Bylock installed on his cell phone??? You decide[6]The prosecution accuses Arslan has used ByLock between 27 August 2014 and 20 February 2015 to contact members of the Gülen Movement within YARSAV.[1]

The trial was fair according to the UN Special Rapporteur for the independence of judges and lawyers Diego García Sayán[7]: “the conviction of Judge Arslan constitutes a severe and gross attack on the independence of the judiciary in Turkey, and in a democratic state under the rule of law an independent and impartial judiciary is a fundamental guarantee for society as a whole,” said the UN human rights expert[8].