The prominent intellectual Osman Kavala remains in custody after more than two years. The judges decided this in the so-called Gezi trial against civil society activists in Istanbul.
The Turkish judiciary is ignoring a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that called for Kavala's immediate release two weeks ago. ECHR judgments are legally binding for Turkey as a member of the Council of Europe, although there is little leverage to implement them.
The Istanbul court now argued that the charges in the indictment were sufficient to continue pre-trial detention. The lawyer for one of the 16 defendants, Bahri Belen, said the court also said it needed clarifying whether the ECtHR judgment was final. Wait for a written answer. A Kavala lawyer, Ilkan Koyuncu, said Turkey is still contesting the ECHR decision.
Kavala is head of the cultural institute Anadolu Kueltür, which also works with German institutions such as the Goethe Institute. The federal government had discussed the case several times. Kavala is also on the board of several civil society organizations. He was arrested in November 2017.
"It's about a person's freedom"
Observers sharply criticized the decision against Kavala. Sergey Lagodinsky, member of the European Parliament for the Greens and chairman of the EU-Turkey parliamentary delegation, called it "very disappointing". The ECtHR judgment was clear, he said. There was no reason to keep Kavala in custody. "It's about the freedom of a person. There can be no compromises with this important fundamental right." An Amnesty International trial observer, Milena Buyum, tweeted that the decision was "disgraceful."
Shameful decision by the trial court to continue # OsmanKavala's unlawful and arbitrary detention.
The two witnesses (former police officers) heard by the court today confirmed they had not seen Osman Kavala engage in any violence or other unlawful acts during Gezi protests. https://t.co/YNr954GwVS
The 16 defendants in the Gezi trial are accused of attempting to overthrow the government-critical Gezi protests in 2013. The protests had sparked on the development of the Gezi Park in Istanbul. They expanded into nationwide demonstrations against the authoritarian policies of the then Prime Minister and today's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The government had brutally put them down.
Among other things, Kavala is accused of having financed the protests with foreign aid. In its decision on December 10, the ECHR had determined that insufficient evidence had been provided for this. He had come to the conclusion that Kavala's imprisonment should silence him and, with him, all Turkish human rights defenders.
657 pages indictment
Critics also referred to the prosecution's weak witnesses. Two police officers said during the trial that they had not seen Kavala involved in acts of violence during the Gezi protests. One said he saw Kavala for the first time that day.
Kavala himself asked for his release again. "The charges against me are completely unfounded," he said, again denying that he financed the Gezi protests. No one should be deprived of his freedom without reason.
The 657-page indictment against Kavala includes meetings between the accused and foreign diplomats - including between Kavala, a lawyer and a German diplomat.
Upon request, the Federal Foreign Office said in June that the "apparently secretly taken pictures" and implicit "allegations to the (German) diplomat" were "unacceptable". They contradict the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. This has been made clear to the Turkish government.
A witness was interrogated on Wednesday. The judges have already scheduled another trial for January 28.
