Osman Kavala: ECHR orders Turkey to release him

The European Court of Human Rights ordered Turkey on August 25 to immediately release civil society leader Osman Kavala, ruling that his criminal conviction was “null and void”.

The Strasbourg-based court also ordered Turkey to pay more than 113,000 euros, or $131,759, to Kavala, 68, who has been behind bars for nearly a decade and was sentenced to life in 2022 for “attempting to overthrow the government”.

The court found that Turkey violated Kavala’s freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, right to liberty and right to a fair trial. It also found that he had been subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment.

The court said the measures against Kavala were mainly motivated by an ulterior purpose: to punish him for his role in the 2013 Gezi Park demonstrations and for expressing his opinions as a human rights defender, and to silence him.

Kavala was arrested in October 2017 on accusations ranging from espionage and financing protests to involvement in a failed 2016 coup. He was charged over the 2013 anti-government protests, which challenged Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister.

The ECHR ordered his release in 2019. Kavala was acquitted in 2020 but was immediately rearrested on new charges and sentenced to life two years later.

In 2023, the Council of Europe awarded Kavala its top rights prize in a move highlighting Turkey’s refusal to follow ECHR rulings.