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Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has slammed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for awarding the 2017 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize to jailed lawyer Murat Arslan, president of the now dissolved Association for the Union of Judges and Prosecutors (YARSAV), on Monday, Turkish Minute reports.

“It is wrong and unacceptable to give the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize to a member of the terrorist FETÖ organization, which was behind the July 15 [2016] coup attempt in Turkey,” the statement issued by the Foreign Ministry said. 

The ministry added that such a "mistake" from an EU body that is supposed to protect of the principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, has seriously damaged the credibility of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), according to Anadolu Agency. 

“While the judicial process is underway, presenting a terrorism suspect as a human rights defender is a betrayal of the ideals of democracy and human rights.

“Such an approach serves no other purpose than to aid the circles that support terrorism. We deeply regret that PACE has become an instrument of these political initiatives,” it added. 

Earlier on Monday, Arslan was named the winner during the first day of the PACE autumn session.

Arslan, who was detained in Ankara on Oct. 19, 2016 as part of an investigation into the faith-based Gülen movement, was referred to a court by the Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office and was arrested on Oct. 26, 2016.

Arslan was dismissed from his post at the Court of Accounts in July, 2016 as a result of the probe into the movement.