Turkish Arts Philanthropist Osman Kavala Sentenced to Life in Prison
Activist and businessman Osman Kavala, a significant supporter of Turkish arts and tradition, on April 25 was sentenced to life in jail with no likelihood of parole on expenses of “trying to overthrow the federal government.” The ruling was handed down by Istanbul’s thirteenth Heavy Penal Court docket below the auspices of the federal government of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which imprisoned him in 2017 for alleged conspiracy within the 2016 plot to overthrow the regime. Since that point, he had been held within the high-security Silvri Jail with out conviction, spending a lot of his time in solitary confinement. His therapy has sparked international outrage, with the European Court docket of Human Rights citing inadequate proof in opposition to him and casting his arrest as an effort to “silence him and dissuade different human rights defenders.” Amongst those that known as for his launch throughout his lengthy internment had been the ambassadors of ten Western nations in addition to the Worldwide Committee for Museums and Collections of Trendy Artwork, and main cultural figures in Istanbul, who waged a marketing campaign to “Free Osman Kavala.”
The founding father of the Istanbul nonprofit artwork heart Anadolu Kültür and the creator of Depo Istanbul, an unbiased artwork area serving as a platform for essential voices, the Paris-born Kavala had lengthy been a central determine in within the Turkish cultural scene. Erdoğan’s court docket initially charged him with financing and fomenting the protests that rocked the nation in 2013, particularly the Gezi Park demonstrations. After serving two and a half years, Osman was acquitted in February 2020, then rearrested the next day and a month later was charged with espionage below article 328 of the Turkish Penal Code, regarding the securing of “data that, attributable to its nature, have to be stored confidential for causes regarding the safety or home or international political pursuits of the State, for the aim of political or army espionage.” Because the failed 2016 coup, the article has been used as a pretext to degree expenses in opposition to quite a few high-profile journalists and lecturers.
The decision was delivered earlier than a packed court docket and was swiftly condemned. “His unjust conviction is inconsistent with respect for human rights, basic freedoms, and the rule of regulation,” contended the US State Division. Nils Muižnieks, director of Amnesty Worldwide Europe, called the ruling a “travesty of justice of spectacular proportions” that “defies all logic,” moreover asserting that “this verdict offers a devastating blow not solely to Osman Kavala, his co-defendants and their households, however to everybody who believes in justice and human rights activism in Turkey and past.”
Additionally convicted of being concerned within the Gezi Park protests and sentenced to eighteen years apiece had been seven activists and artists. These had been Hakan Altınay, an government board member of Anadolu Kültür; housing-justice lawyer Can Atalay; Yiğit Ali Ekmekçi, deputy chair of Anadolu Kültür; city planner Tayfun Kahraman; filmmaker Mine Özerden; documentary filmaker Çiğdem Mater Utku; and architect Mücella Yapıcı.
