A Greek Muslim left everything to his wife by notarial will, his sisters invoked sharia, and Greek courts cut her to a quarter

Chatitze Molla Sali, born in 1950, lives in Komotini. Her husband, a Greek citizen of the Muslim minority of Thrace, made a will before a notary under the Greek Civil Code and left her his entire estate. His two sisters challenged it. They argued that Islamic law and the mufti's jurisdiction governed Muslims in Thrace under the treaties of 1920 and 1923. In September 2011 the Thrace Court of Appeal upheld the will. The Court of Cassation set that judgment aside and held that sharia applied. On 15 December 2015 a new appeal bench held the will had no legal effect, and on 6 April 2017 the Court of Cassation dismissed her appeal. She said sharia cost her three-quarters of the inheritance. On 15 January 2018 a Greek law made recourse to the mufti possible only with the agreement of all parties. On 19 December 2018 the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights held unanimously that applying sharia against the testator's will discriminated against her. At the time Greece was the only European country applying sharia to citizens against their wishes. In June 2020 the court ordered Greece to restore her ownership or pay compensation, and awarded €10,000 plus costs. Greek courts had ordered her to register only a quarter; the land register still showed her owning all of it while the sisters' claims continued.