Alwaght- A Turkish court on Monday rights activist Osman Kavala to life in prison without parole over alleged funding protests in Gezi Park in 2013 and participating in the failed 2016 coup to overthrow Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.
While he was initially acquitted of the 2013-related charge in 2020, Kavala was quickly re-arrested and accused of the coup offence. However, he was ultimately prosecuted over involvement in both uprisings in a complicated timeline that saw him acquitted and re-accused multiple times of both counts before the charges were merged and an espionage indictment was added .
In a very crowded and stuffy Istanbul courtroom, businessman-turned-rights-campaigner Osman Kavala was convicted. The court also sentenced seven other defendants to 18 years in prison for aiding in an attempt to overthrow the government and ordered them to be immediately arrested. Among the seven is Mucella Yapici, a well known architect and urban rights activist.
Kavala has maintained his innocence throughout his imprisonment, referring to the high-profile trial as a “judicial assassination” and insisting the charges are “conspiracy theories drafted on political and ideological grounds” in a speech before the court ahead of his sentencing. He had merely brought pastries and face masks to the protesters, he insisted, calling accusations of masterminding the protests “not plausible.”
“My only consolation is the possibility that my experience will contribute to a better understanding of the grave problems of the [Turkish] judiciary,” he told the court via video-link from Silivri prison, where he has been kept with only a brief interruption since 2017.
Kavala’s 2017 arrest – at a time when he was known outside of Turkey primarily for promoting cultural reconciliation between the country and its longtime enemy, Armenia – surprised Turkey’s NATO allies and has become a diplomatic sticking point. His ongoing imprisonment led to the Council of Europe launching infringement procedures against Turkey for refusing to heed a 2019 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights demanding Kavala’s release due to a violation of his rights. The Council’s ruling could see Turkey stripped of its voting rights or even membership in the body.
The Amnesty International condemn the conviction as "a travesty of justice of spectacular proportions," saying "This verdict deals a devastating blow not only to Osman Kavala, his co-defendants and their families, but to everyone who believes in justice and human rights activism in Turkey and beyond.
“The court’s decision defies all logic. The prosecuting authorities have repeatedly failed to provide any evidence that substantiates the baseless charges of attempting to overthrow the government. This unjust verdict shows that the Gezi trial was only an attempt to silence independent voices.
Erdogan has defended the lengthy pre-trial detention of Kavala and others linked to the 2016 coup attempt and accused its European allies of meddling in Turkish affairs. Istanbul will not respect the Council of Europe if it does not respect Turkish courts, he declared in February, as the Council referred Kavala’s case to the ECHR. He has also accused Kavala of being the “Turkish branch” of billionaire currency speculator and international color-revolution promoter George Soros, whose organization packed up and left Turkey in 2018 as Kavala’s legal problems mounted.
