Amnesty International on Gezi trial: Kavala and all defendants must be acquitted

Amnesty International has released a statement ahead of the fifth and probably final hearing of the Gezi trial to be held on Monday (March 21).

Announcing the final opinion as to the accusations between the hearings on March 4, 2022, the prosecutor’s office requested an aggravated life sentence for arrested businessman Osman Kavala and Mücella Yapıcı and up to 20 years in prison for six other defendants.

Speaking about the trial against this background, Nils Muižnieks, Amnesty International’s Europe Director, has recalled that “this weekend, Osman Kavala marked his 1,600th day in jail” and raised concerns that “despite committing no internationally recognized crime, he remains arbitrarily detained on baseless charges in a facility far away from his family”.

He has said, “Since 2017, the prosecuting authorities have tried to conjure a crime out of thin air, but have repeatedly failed. On the contrary, each tortuous twist in this politically motivated prosecution has further exposed the hollowness of the Turkish justice system”.

Referring to his imprisonment, Muižnieks has said that “Osman Kavala will never get back the four-and-a-half years he has already spent behind bars for no other reason than his civil society activism” and added:

“But this shameful farce can only have one just outcome: the acquittal of Osman Kavala and all of his co-defendants. Crucially, Kavala himself must also be immediately and unconditionally released from prison.”

Prosecutor’s final opinion

The prosecutor has demanded that defendants Osman Kavala, who has been arrested for over 1,600 days, and Mücella Yapıcı be sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment on charge of “attempting to abolish the government of the Republic of Turkey by using force and violence”.

Referring to Osman Kavala, the prosecutor has also requested that “his imprisonment over the crime that he committed as per the Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) continue, considering the current stage of the trial, the current state of evidence and the existence of a flight risk in the face of the sentence likely to be handed down if found guilty.”

In the opinion as to the accusations, the prosecutor has demanded that other defendants Çiğdem Mater, Ali Hakan Altınay, Mine Özerden, Şerafettin Can Atalay, Tayfun Kahraman and Yiğit Ali Ekmekçi be sentenced to 15 to 20 years in prison each for “assistance to the attempted abolishment of the government of the Republic of Turkey by using force and violence”.

Referring to the fugitive defendants Ayşe Pınar Alabora, Henry Jack Barkey, Can Dündar, Gökçe Yılmaz, Handan Meltem Arıkan, Hanzade Hikmet Germiyanoğlu, Mehmet Ali Alabora, Yiğit Aksakoğlu and İnanç Ekmekçi, the prosecutor has requested that their file be separated from this file and the execution of the warrants issued against them be awaited.