You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

“A Travesty of Justice”: Rights Groups Condemn Turkish Court’s Life Sentence for Osman Kavala

HeadlineApr 26, 2022

In Turkey, a court has sentenced businessman and civil society leader Osman Kavala to life in prison without the possibility of parole, in a decision condemned by human rights groups. Seven co-defendants each received 18-year prison terms. Osman Kavala has been jailed in pretrial detention since 2017, after he was arrested on charges related to the 2013 Gezi Park protests. He was also accused of organizing a failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government in 2016. Kavala’s supporters gathered outside a courthouse in Istanbul Monday as his life sentence was handed down.

Sera Kadigil: “If this was a lawful decision, we would be able to comment on it, but it is not. This is the culmination of the government’s revenge against the Gezi Park protesters. This is the execution of orders coming from the Turkish president.”

Amnesty International condemned the harsh sentences for Kavala and his co-defendants. The group said in a statement, “Today, we have witnessed a travesty of justice of spectacular proportions. This verdict deals a devastating blow not only to Osman Kavala, his co-defendants and their families, but to everyone who believes in justice and human rights activism in Turkey and beyond.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top