A prominent Turkish businessman and human rights activist has been re-arrested, just hours after he was acquitted of trying to overthrow the government, Turkish state media says.
A court ordered Osman Kavala's immediate release earlier on Tuesday, after dropping charges against him and eight others over protests in 2013.
He had spent over two years in prison. But hours later, a warrant was issued against him over a 2016 coup attempt which triggered a massive crackdown.
In a report published today, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, calls on the Turkish authorities to restore judicial independence and stop the practice of targeting human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists and silencing them by using administrative and judicial actions. The report is based on the Commissioner’s visit to Turkey carried out in July 2019.
A verdict is expected tomorrow (February 19, 2020) in the cases of 11 human rights defenders, including the former leadership and several members of Amnesty Turkey, who have spent more than two-and-a-half years fighting trumped-up charges and could face up to 15 years behind bars if found guilty.
An Istanbul court has acquitted prominent philanthropist Osman Kavala and eight defendants in the 2013 Gezi Park case, but in a counter move, Istanbul’s chief prosecutor has ordered Kavala’s continued detention stemming from a separate case pertaining to his supposed involvement in the failed 2016 coup attempt.
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The court has announced its ruling in the main trial of Özgür Gündem newspaper: Aslı Erdoğan, Necmiye Alpay and Bilge Aykut have been acquitted, the files of İnan Kızılkaya, Eren Keskin, Kemal Sancılı and Zana (Bilir) Kaya have been separated.
Activists have called on Davutoğlu and Babacan, who set up their own political movements after resigning from the ruling AKP, to withdraw as plaintiffs in the Gezi Park case. Davutoğlu was the foreign minister at the time of the 2013 Gezi Park protests, whereas Babacan was the deputy minister in charge of economy.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of FIDH (International Federation For Human Rights) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests intervention in the following situation in Turkey.
Yiğit Aksakoğlu was one of the 13 academics, rights advocates and non-governmental workers who were detained in their homes in a police operation on November 16, 2018. Aksakoğlu spent 221 days in pre-trial solitary confinement.
Holding a press statement about the sixth hearing of Gezi trial to be held on February 18, Taksim Solidarity platform has said, “We have to defend Gezi to the end for our losses whose names are not even mentioned in this trial.”