Turkiye: Osman Kavala is behind bars for seven years

(Istanbul, November 1, 2024) – from Turkey The continued unlawful detention of human rights defender Osman Kavala is the result of prosecutors and courts effectively operating under the government’s political control, three human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, said in a report. intervention of third parties to the European Court of Human Rights in connection with his case. The groups called for Kavala’s immediate release and for his conviction to be overturned to implement the European Court’s binding rulings.

Kavala, who has spent seven years behind bars since November 1, 2024, was convicted after a manifestly unfair trial on baseless charges of attempting to overthrow the government. He remains in prison despite two binding rulings by the European Court ruling that his detention is arbitrary and serves political purposes. Kavala is serving a life sentence without parole and four others convicted with him are serving 18-year sentences for their alleged role in the 2013 mass protests sparked by an urban transformation plan around Istanbul’s Gezi Park.

In January, Kavala filed a new application with the European Court, alleging that there had been several further violations of his rights since the court’s 2019 ruling finding that he had been detained without reasonable suspicion and that his detention was politically was motivated to silence him. .

In this recent filing, Kavala’s lawyers focus on his continued unlawful detention and allege that, taken together, multiple violations of Kavala’s right to a fair trial, and of freedom of expression, assembly and association, as well as violation of the principle of legality, demonstrate that the Turkish authorities have continued to pursue the political goal of silencing and punishing Kavala as a human rights defender. They also argue that the proceedings against him and the life sentence without parole amount to a violation of the prohibition on inhuman and degrading treatment and torture. The European Court is expected to rule in the coming months.

The European Court has accepted Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists and the Turkey Litigation Support Project as interveners in the case. On September 16, the groups filed a third-party intervention to provide further relevant information and context for the court to consider in considering Kavala’s request. The submission focuses on a well-documented pattern of behavior in Türkiye intended to circumvent the implementation of European Court rulings in politically sensitive cases, especially in cases involving alleged dissidents.

The rights groups also point to the following features of the domestic system: the capture of the judiciary by the ruling political parties; the lack of independence of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors, which has become a mechanism to consolidate undue influence over the judiciary; serious concerns about the independence and effectiveness of the Turkish Constitutional Court; and continued opposition to the rulings and standards of the European Court in its case law.