Kurdish Politician Mahmut Alinak was sentenced to 50 days in prison by the Kars Criminal Court of Peace for criticising the Imrali Prison system on February 14, 2018 and for requesting the Kars Municipality rename some streets with the names of Musa Anter, Deniz Gezmis, Vedat Aydin, Kemal Akbulut and Oruc Korkmaz. Alinak was placed in the Susuz district prison. He later appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Alinak’s comments are within the bounds of “freedom of though and expression” and sentenced Turkey to pay 3.200 Euros in compensation.

Alinak spoke about the ECHR ruling and said: “I will not touch one lira of this money. I will spend it on a library and a museum in my village which has been a dream of mine for a long time.”