Four and a half years in pre-trial detention, and a brutal verdict at the end of the tunnel. Turkish patron Osman Kavala was sentenced in Istanbul on Monday to life in prison without the possibility of remission. A figure of Turkish civil society, the 64-year-old billionaire is accused, among other things, of having sought to overthrow the government by financing the so-called anti-government demonstrationsGezi movementin 2013 and participating in the attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016. He has always denied the charges against him. His lawyers demanded his acquittal for lack of evidence and denounced the relentlessness of power.
“There was no trial: you did not ask a single question to Osman Kavala“, Launched one of them, Me Tolga Aytöre. “Not even: “Have you been to Gezi Park?”“. Another lawyer recalled that “Kavala is accused of playing a role in the attempted coup in 2016, but no one asked him where he was the night of the coup“. During the pleadings, the representative of the Pen Club, association for the defense of freedom of expression, Caroline Stockford, asked the judges to “drop their phoneto listen to the defense, implying that they were receiving their orders on screen.
In advance, at the close of the debates, Osman Kavala had denounced a “judicial assassinationagainst his person. “Conspiracy theories, advanced for political and ideological reasons, prevented an unbiased analysis of events and disconnected them from reality“, he had launched before the judges withdrew. As at each audience, a dozen Western diplomats were present to show their support for the native of Paris. The verdict was announced after less than an hour of deliberation. He was greeted with boos in the courtroom.
Long unknown to Turkish public opinion, the businessman emerged from the shadows when he was arrested in October 2017. He was acquitted in February 2020 of charges related to the 2013 protests and then arrested in the stride, before he even had time to get home. This time, he was implicated for his action during the failed putsch of July 2016, and also accused of espionage. His acquittal was then invalidated by the Turkish courts, but the regular renewal of his detention made him the hero of the opposition to President Erdogan.
Over the years, the pro-government press dubbed him “the red billionaire“Comparing him to the wealthy American businessman of Hungarian origin George Soros, a pet peeve of several leaders of authoritarian regimes around the world. Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself has repeatedly accused him of being “the representative in Turkeyof Soros andfinance terrorists“, without ever providing proof.
Known for his support for cultural projects relating in particular to the rights of minorities, the Kurdish question and Armenian-Turkish reconciliation, Osman Kavala has devoted himself to publishing, art and culture. In 1982, he inaugurated the Iletisim publishing house, which has become one of the most prestigious in the country. He is also the father of the Anadolu Kültür foundation, which aims to enable Turkish society to discuss difficult subjects, including the Armenian genocide, through cultural projects.
The Kavala affair triggered a diplomatic crisis in the fall, Ankara threatening to expel a dozen Western ambassadors, including that of the United States, who had called for his release. In February, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) launched a “infringement procedureagainst Turkey. Last month, prosecutors sought his conviction for “overthrow attemptof the government, or a life prison sentence without the possibility of early release.