Civil society figures back in court in Turkey protest trial

Sixteen civil society figures, among them jailed Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala, will return to court on Tuesday as a verdict nears in a case that has been widely criticized as a crackdown on opposition voices.

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. The demonstrations grew into a wider protest movement across Turkey, challenging then-Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The prosecutor, in a 22-page sentencing opinion delivered this month, is seeking a sentence of life in solitary confinement without parole for Kavala, architect Mucella Yapici and Yigit Aksakoglu, who works on early childhood development and spent 221 days in pretrial detention. They reject the accusation that they tried to overthrow the government and say the protests were an exercise of democratic rights.

Yapici, who is a member of Taksim Solidarity, a platform working for the area’s urban issues, has already been tried over her involvement in the protests on other charges and was acquitted in 2015.

“The prosecution’s arguments have relied on conspiracy theories, not evidence,” David Diaz-Jogeix of freedom of expression organization Article 19 said, echoing a major argument by the defense lawyers, who say the indictment lacks inculpatory evidence. “Along with numerous irregularities in the court proceedings, the defendants have not received a fair trial."

The prosecutor is also demanding 15 to 20 years in prison for six other defendants, among them filmmakers, a lawyer, an urban planner and civil society professionals, for aiding an attempted overthrow. The remaining seven defendants, who are abroad, should be separately tried, the prosecutor said. All 16 are accused of “terror crimes.”

The court has not complied with a European Court of Human Rights order to immediately release Kavala from detention. He is the sole jailed defendant, arrested four years after the protests, and has been in pretrial detention for 840 days. In the December ruling, the Strasbourg-court said that Kavala’s right to liberty was violated by a lack of reasonable suspicion, and that the extended detention served “the ulterior purpose of reducing him to silence” with a “chilling effect on civil society.”

The 63-year-old is a businessperson and the founder of a nonprofit institution that focuses on cultural and artistic projects for peace and dialogue called Anadolu Kultur, and has worked with many civil society organizations. Kavala has maintained that he took part in peaceful activities to defend the environment and the park, which is near his office, and rejects the accusation that he organized and financed the protests.

The 657-page indictment from March 2019 also alleges that billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is at the heart of many conspiracy theories in Turkey and abroad, was active in the “Gezi insurrection” with links to Kavala, but he is not listed among the suspects. President Erdogan has called Kavala the “Red Soros,” saying he funded “terrorists” in the protests.

The defense lawyers have questioned the independence of the court, amid accusations of legal misconduct. In the last hearing in January, dozens of lawyers walked out in protest after the committee of three judges refused to recuse itself. The lawyers’ demand for the recusal came after the judges heard testimony of a key witness twice, without the presence of the defense team, which they say was unlawful. The witness, Murat Papuc, had previously declared he suffered from paranoia and borderline personality disorders.

Lawyers and observers have also slammed the judiciary for purportedly recycling an indictment created by former prosecutors with alleged links to Fethullah Gulen, the cleric who the government blames for a bloody coup attempt in 2016. But the prosecutor rejects the accusation, saying the evidence was re-examined.

The trial is taking place in a courthouse near the Silivri maximum security prison campus located on the outskirts of Istanbul.

An estimated 3.6 million people joined the Gezi Park protests, according to government estimates, and thousands were injured. Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse mostly peaceful protesters and have been criticized for excessive force.

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 five were killed. The discrepancy stems from the inclusion of heart attacks and cerebral hemorrhages thought to be caused by pepper spray, as well as those killed in other protests during the same period.

“The millions who took to the streets to use their democratic rights are being judged,” Yapici, the architect on trial, said at a news conference last week.

(Pic Credit: Pixabay)