16 await verdict in heavily criticised Turkey trial

Sixteen civil society figures returned to court in Turkey on Tuesday as a verdict nears in a controversial case that has been widely criticised as a crackdown on opposition voices.

Among those on trial is jailed Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala, a 63-year-old who is accused of having planned and financed anti-government protests in 2013, an accusation he denies.

Sezgin Tanrikulu, an opposition lawmaker, said he believes the court will deliver a verdict soon in order to not fulfill a European Court of Human Rights ruling from December which ordered Kavala's immediate release because of what they called a violation to the right of liberty due to a lack of reasonable suspicion.

"They are trying to reach a verdict without hearing the defence and without gathering evidence," he said.

The defendants are on trial for attempting or aiding in an attempt to overthrow the government with the 2013 Gezi Park protests, which began as a demonstration to protect the small park in central Istanbul from being redeveloped as an Ottoman-style shopping mall, and grew into into a wider protest movement across Turkey, challenging then-Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The prosecutor is seeking a sentence of life in solitary confinement without parole for Kavala, as well as two others who are also on trial.

The defendants reject the accusation that they tried to overthrow the government and say the protests were an exercise of democratic rights.

Kavala is the only jailed defendant, arrested four years after the protests, and has been in pretrial detention for 840 days.

The prosecution argues the group acted under instructions from Kavala to organize and plan the protests, and that events escalated through social media.

In addition, Turkey's President Erdogan has said Kavala funded "terrorists" in the protests.

An estimated 3.6 million people joined the Gezi Park protests, according to government estimates, and thousands were injured after police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse mostly peaceful protesters.

The Turkish Bar Association puts the number of killed in the unrest at 15, including a police officer, but the prosecutor's indictment against the defendants says only five were killed.