For Erdogan’s detractors, Kavala’s conviction for attempting to topple the government has become a cause celebre.
On highly contentious allegations of attempting to topple the government, a Turkish court condemned rights campaigner and philanthropist Osman Kavala to life in jail without the chance of release.
On Monday, a panel of three judges sentenced seven additional defendants to 18 years in prison each on counts of assisting in the overthrow of the government.
The judgments result from claims that Kavala helped finance a wave of anti-government rallies in 2013 and was involved in a failed military coup attempt in 2016.
By video hookup from his high-security jail outside Istanbul, Kavala told the court that the entire procedure was a “judicial assassination.”
Moments before the sentencing, Kavala informed the court, “These are conspiracy theories created on political and ideological reasons.”
The case will now be heard by the court of appeals, with the possibility of going all the way to the Supreme Court. Separate espionage allegations against Kavala were dismissed.
The 64-year-old Kavala, who was born in Paris, has become a symbol of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s war on dissent, according to opponents and human rights activists.
In a December 2019 judgement, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Kavala’s immediate release, stating that the Turkish government had breached his rights. The allegations levelled against him have been seen as politically motivated.
According to Kavala, the 2013 anti-government protests, often known as the Gezi protests, were protected under the First Amendment. The demonstrations began as a minor protest over the destruction of an Istanbul park in 2013 and quickly escalated into widespread anti-government rioting, with eight protestors and two police officers murdered.
The ECHR also stated that prosecutors lack proof that Kavala was involved in the failed coup attempt in 2016, which was carried out by a group of the Turkish military and resulted in the deaths of 241 people.
The Committee of Ministers, the Council of Europe’s human rights watchdog, said in February that the matter will be remanded to the top European court. The ECHR and the committee are both part of the Council of Europe, a rights-focused international organisation that Turkey is a founding member of.
In February 2020, Kavala and eight others were acquitted in the Gezi trial, but he was jailed again just hours after his release.
The acquittal was reversed, and the case was merged with the other allegations levelled against him, including the ones related to the 2016 coup attempt.
The philanthropist is most known for donating a portion of his fortune to support culture and programmes that attempt to bring Turkey and Armenia closer together.
Erdogan claims Kavala is a Marxist agent of Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros, who is suspected of attempting to overthrow the government using foreign funds.
“With people like Kavala, we can never be united,” Erdogan remarked in 2020.
