Strasbourg | The website of the European Court of Human Rights was the target of a “large-scale cyberattack which made it temporarily inaccessible” just after the publication on Tuesday of a harsh judgment condemning Turkey for the detention of ‘a pro-Kurdish opponent, the ECHR announced on Wednesday.
“At this stage, no loss of data” has been observed, the Court’s press service told AFP.
The cyberattack, the origin of which has not yet been formally identified and which lasted several hours, was noted “following the delivery of the judgment” made public Tuesday at 3 p.m. (2 p.m. GMT) concerning in particular the detention since November 2016 in the Turkish jails of pro-Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas, said in a statement the ECHR, whose seat is in Strasbourg.
This “large-scale cyberattack (…) made the Court’s site temporarily inaccessible”, indicated the ECHR, which “deeply deplores this serious incident”.
According to the court’s press service, the attack lasted until Wednesday morning. The site, which had been inaccessible since Tuesday afternoon, was available again in the middle of the morning, AFP noted.
“We consider the follow-up that we intend to reserve in this case”, further indicated the press service of the Court.
This is a priori the second time that the ECHR has been the victim of a cyberattack, “but it is large-scale,” said the press service.
The ECHR issued a scathing judgment on Tuesday afternoon in the case of the opponent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Court, which noted several violations of the European Convention on Human Rights, also demanded the “immediate” release of Mr. Demirtas.