ANKARA (Middle East Eye) – Rights groups have called for the Council of Europe (CoE) to begin infringement proceedings against Turkey after the country once again defied calls to release imprisoned campaigner Osman Kavala.
On Friday, a Turkish court ruled that Kavala must remain in jail despite the ongoing calls for this release from the country’s allies.
Demonstrators, including a number of opposition MPs, gathered outside the Istanbul Courthouse in Caglayan to call for the release of Kavala and 51 other defendants who are facing charges linked to the 2013 Gezi Park anti-government protests, which saw millions taking to the streets of Turkey in opposition to then prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The hearing in Istanbul comes a month after the government threatened to expel 10 ambassadors who called for the Kavala’s release, leading to a major diplomatic row that negotiations appeared to have calmed.
Friday’s decision to continue to ignore rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that Kavala - who has yet to face conviction despite four years in prison - should be freed will increase pressure on the Council of Europe to take action, however.
In September, the council’s committee of ministers said it would notify Turkey ahead of a meeting in Strasbourg on Tuesday that it would begin penalizing the country, potentially suspending membership rights.
Kavala, a businessman who founded a number of organizations advocating inter-communal dialogue and democratic reforms in Turkey, has been in detention over allegations of involvement in mass anti-government protests in 2013 and the 2016 coup attempt.
In 2019 the EHRC ruled that Kavala’s detention was political and called for his immediate release, a request which has been repeated numerous times but has so far been ignored by Turkey.
In a statement on Friday, Amnesty International said Kavala had been subjected to “barely disguised political persecution” and called for the Council of Europe to take action.