The Turkish president was referring to rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and calls for the immediate release of both men by the Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a founding member.

EU decisions on the matter are “null and void whether the EU understands it or not”, Erdogan told reporters on Wednesday in a press briefing as he returned from Qatar, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

European rulings are not above the Turkish judiciary, Erdogan said, responding to a question on the CoE decision to launch infringement proceedings against Turkey regarding the Kavala case.

On Dec. 2, The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers initiated infringement proceedings against Turkey over Ankara’s failure to comply with the 2019 ECHR judgement for Kavala’s immediate release.

Turkey’s non-compliance could result in the suspension of the country’s voting rights in the European body, or even its expulsion. Similar proceedings have only been used once before, against Azerbaijan in 2017.

Kavala has spent four years in a Turkish jail without conviction despite a ruling by the Strasbourg court that the 64-year-old businessman was unjustifiably jailed. Turkey had agreed to abide by the court’s decisions after it began membership talks with the European Union a decade and a half ago.

Meanwhile, according to Article 90 of the Turkish constitution, international treaties have precedence over domestic laws when they are in conflict.

Kavala has been behind bars since November 2017 on charges of espionage and plotting to overthrow the government by organizing the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, which ballooned into nationwide demonstrations against Erdogan and his governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).

On Nov. 27, an Istanbul court ordered the continuation of Kavala’s arrest on charges of organizing the protests. The next hearing in the case will be held on Jan. 17.

The ECHR also ruled that Turkey must release prominent Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas from custody over what it considered politically-motivated terrorism charges.

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