Osman Kavala, the prominent Turkish businessman and human rights defender, has once again had an appeal hearing on his release delayed – more than three years after first being detained and despite having no convictions against him.
Upon hearing of the delay, Director of the International Observatory of Human Rights said:
“When will Turkey stop abusing its citizen’s rights to freedom of expression through crude censorship tactics? Delaying trials, re-arrests on spurious charges and playing ping pong between courts to keep Osman Kavala unjustly incarcerated after he has suffered 1,142 days for standing up to his rights deserves the world’s condemnation.”
Mr. Kavala is scheduled to stand trial on 18 December 2020 on charges of “political or military espionage”, the third charge of three lawsuits filed against him.
On 15 December, the First Section of the Constitutional Court was supposed to rule on an appeal to release Mr. Kavala. Instead they deferred the decision to Turkey’s top court, who announced a further delay to hearing the appeal.
It is widely accepted that the courts are delaying the appeal to ensure it was not heard before the start of his first trial later this week.
On news that Mr. Kavala’s appeal had been delayed, senior program officer for Europe and Eurasia at Freedom House Gina S. Lentine said:
“Osman Kavala has been held in detention for over three years without any credible evidence of having committed a crime…His case is emblematic and represents the stories of thousands of other activists, journalists, scholars, writers, artists, political figures, lawyers, and others who have been subjected to politically motivated proceedings in response to exercising their fundamental right to free expression.”
Mr. Kavala’s case is emblematic of the wider situation in Turkey, with Turkish civil society contending with a sustained brutal crackdown since a failed coup in 2016.
Prior to the court delaying his appeal, Mr. Kavala was visited in Silivri Prison by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Eskişehir MP Utku Çakırözer. Mr. Kavala said in this meeting:
“I hope that the Constitutional Court and the local court will hand down rulings complying with the legal norms. I hope that the rulings complying with the legal norms to be handed down for me will also set a positive example for the judiciary.”
Osman Kavala was arrested in the wake of the attempted coup in 2016. He was initially accused of organising anti-government Gezi protests in 2013 and attempting to change the constitutional order to overthrow the government. However he was acquitted on these charges in February.
Kavala was then arrested again on the same day, this time charged with “political or military espionage.” – a charge he fervently denies.
The case of Osman Kavala has received widespread condemnation from rights activists, the international community and opposition parties within Turkey.
Following his meeting with Mr. Kavala, CHP’s Çakırözer also made a statement, saying:
“Osman Kavala has been unjustly and unlawfully in prison for 1,140 days despite one verdict of acquittal, two verdicts of release and one European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgement.”
He also used his statement to remind reporters that the Turkish government had committed judicial reform. Turkey is expected to engage in a process of judicial reform in early next year but it appears as though this is unlikely to be of significance in the Kavala case with President Erdogan recently stating: “he would never defend Kavala”
Bulent Arinc, a previously close ally of the President, resigned from the government’s high advisory council last month after calling for judicial reform and the release of Kavala. Mr. Arinc went as far to say that the charges against the philanthropist were baseless.
As mentioned by Mr. Çakırözer, on 10 December 2019 (Human Rights Day), the ECtHR concluded that the European Convention on Human Rights was violated on the grounds that Kavala was arrested without any reasonable suspicion and with political motives and that the Constitutional Court did not examine his application within a reasonable period of time.
In its ruling the court noted:
“in the absence of other relevant and sufficient circumstances, the mere fact that the applicant had had contacts with a suspected person or with foreign nationals cannot be considered as sufficient evidence to satisfy an objective observer that he (Kavala) could have been involved in an attempt to overthrow the constitutional order.”
This ruling is the basis for Kavala’s appeal. While the ruling was made final in May of this year, Turkish courts are yet to enforce it.
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe made a call to Turkey about the final ruling of the ECtHR and urged Turkey to implement the ECtHR’s ruling of right violation and to release him.