For Whom the Bell Tolls – Osman Kavala

Abstract

On April 25, 2022, Istanbul’s 13th High Criminal Court sentenced Osman Kavala, a philanthropist and Turkish human rights defender to life imprisonment for attempting to overthrow the government. The charges were related to the events that took place in Gezi Park between May and September 2013 (Article 312 of the Criminal Code) and to his participation in the coup attempt on July 15, 2016 (Article 309 of the Criminal Code). The charges were espionage and an attempt to overthrow the government and the constitutional order, as well as participation in a coup attempt against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. On December 10, 2019, the European Court of Human Rights found that Turkey used the detention for political purposes, violated Kavala’s rights, including his right to liberty, and acted in bad faith. The Kavala judgment, like all judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, are legally binding, but the Turkish authorities ignored the judgment of the Strasbourg court. In response, The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers’ voted on February 2, 2022 to begin infringement proceedings against Turkey for non-compliance with the judgment of the European Court of Justice, which is an important step to support the protection of human rights in Turkey and to comply with international human rights frameworks.