When a court acquitted him of that charge in 2020, he was immediately rearrested for allegedly being behind the 2016 failed coup attempt, a charge that was soon replaced by "military and political espionage" to keep him in prison. Since November 2017 Kavala has faced one fantastical accusation after another: organising and financing the Gezi protests – mass demonstrations in 2013 against an urban development project. What we can speak about are the facts and they point at a determination to punish him by holding him behind bars for as long as possible, and thus sending a chilling message to the rest of society: we can keep him and you imprisoned for years even without a guilty verdict. It is for the authorities to answer this question. I am often asked: why Kavala? Why has he been singled out with one baseless accusation after another? I happen to be this association's president. Kavala was also a founder of the Turkish School of Political Studies, which is a member of an association of 21 democracy academies affiliated with the Council of Europe. While Kavala's opinion on human rights developments was often sought out by people trying to understand Turkey, he was also a pillar of Turkish civil society, giving many non-governmental organisations his philanthropic support. I regularly met with Kavala not only in my office in Strasbourg, the seat of the Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a member state, but also during regular visits to Turkey.Īs a prominent figure in Turkey's civil society and his obvious vast knowledge of its diversity and history, it was always enlightening to speak with him. That victim is philanthropist Osman Kavala, one of Turkey's most well-known human rights defenders, who has been unjustly imprisoned for more than four years. At its London headquarters, Amnesty International has a large sign emblazoned in a hallway encouraging you to 'Take Injustice Personally' (Photo: The Dots/Amnesty International).
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