The fate of the philanthropist and philanthropist Osman Kavala, who has been in prison for four years despite a warning from the Council of Europe to Ankara, is being re-examined in an Istanbul court.
The hearing, the culmination of a series of court rulings that have so far kept him or sent him back to prison, comes after the Council of Europe raised its voice in early December, launching a process that could lead to sanctions against Turkey.
Diplomats from at least nine Western countries and two representatives of the European Union delegation in Ankara were present in the courtroom today.
An emblematic figure in Turkish civil society, Osman Kavala is in danger of being sentenced to life in prison. He is accused by the Erdogan regime of “attempting to destabilize” Turkey. He did not appear in court today and his lawyer stated that “his right to a fair trial has been violated”.
The Turkish regime refuses to release Osman Kavalas despite the 2019 ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that demands his immediate release. Ankara has until Wednesday to submit its “observations” to the Council of Europe’s inter-ministerial committee in charge of implementing the Court’s rulings.
If there is no response from Ankara, the commission is expected to decide at its meeting on 2 February 2022 to refer the matter to the European Court of Human Rights.
It is then up to the committee to formally establish that Turkey did not release Osman Kavalas and therefore did not comply with the Court’s ruling.
In that case, the Interministerial Committee may decide to impose sanctions on Ankara, a member of the Council of Europe since 1950.
Osman Kavala is one of the symbols of the collapse of human rights in Turkey. The 64-year-old has been detained for 1,539 days and is accused by Erdogan of supporting anti-government protests in 2013, when the current president was prime minister.
In the autumn, ambassadors to Ankara demanded his release, sparking outrage from the regime, which threatened to deport them.
This is the second time that the Council of Europe has issued a warning to one of the 47 members of the organization, after issuing a warning for the first time to Azerbaijan in 2017.
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