After Kavala judgment
Foreign Office orders Turkish ambassador
April 29, 2022, 1:15 p.m
The conviction of Osman Kavala in Turkey has drawn international criticism. The federal government is now summoning the Turkish ambassador and demanding the immediate release of the publisher. The verdict is a “further heavy burden on the EU’s relations with Turkey”.
In response to the sentencing of cultural promoter Osman Kavala, the Federal Foreign Office summoned the Turkish ambassador to Berlin. The “shocking verdict against Osman Kavala and the severe penalties against his co-defendants” are “another heavy burden on the EU’s relations with Turkey as well as on our bilateral relations,” said a spokesman for the Federal Foreign Office. The German government made its position “again very clear” to the Turkish ambassador during the morning talks.
In addition, the federal government has also called on its partners in the EU to respond to Kavala’s conviction by calling in ambassadors. “We expect Osman Kavala to be released immediately,” the spokesman said. “The European Court of Human Rights has bindingly obliged Turkey to do this.”
Kavala was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Istanbul on Monday on charges of attempting to overthrow the government. The verdict was sharply criticized internationally.
Kavala has been imprisoned in the high security prison Silivri near Istanbul for more than four years. The businessman was originally arrested in 2017 on charges of financing and organizing the 2013 Gezi protests in Istanbul against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. In February 2020, a court acquitted him of this charge. Kavala was released from prison at the time, but arrested again a few hours later – this time in connection with the attempted coup against Erdogan in 2016 and because of allegations of espionage. Kavala denies the allegations.