Acquit the Gezi defendants and release Osman Kavala, says 45 PEN Centres worldwide
PEN Norway, together with 44 PEN Centres worldwide, call for the acquittal of all defendants in the Gezi hearing, and for the immediate release of Osman Kavala
We, the undersigned PEN Centres, condemn the continued judicial harrassment of all defendants in the Gezi trial, the new hearing of which takes place tomorrow. We further call for all charges against publisher and human rights defender Osman Kavala to be dropped and for his immediate and unconditional release from prison.
Osman Kavala has spent over three-and-a-half years behind bars. First detained in October 2017, he was officially charged 16 months after his arrest – accused of being responsible for crimes allegedly committed by protestors across Turkey during the 2013 Gezi Park protests. He remains in pre-trial detention in Silivri Prison, outside Istanbul.
In December 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled for Osman Kavala’s immediate release, as it found his detention ‘pursued an ulterior purpose…namely that of reducing [him] to silence’. Despite decisions from the European Court and Committee of Ministers, Turkish authorities continue to ignore all binding rulings issued so far.
A number of defendants in this case have been acquitted of the charges not once, but twice and we call for this prolonged, judicial harrassment to end. Representatives of PEN Centres have been present at every one of the hearings in the Gezi cases and observed the judicial theatre that took place and which has no basis in law.
The majority of defendants in this case were acquitted in March 2020. The prosecutor’s appeal against their acquittals was upheld in November 2020 and a retrial was ordered. We support the defendants in this case for exercising their Constitutional rights to Assembly and Demonstration. We urgently call for Osman Kavala’s immediate release from prison and for the acquittal of all defendants in the case.
SIGNATORIES
- PEN International
- PEN Afrikaans
- PEN America
- PEN Bangladesh
- PEN Belarus
- PEN Bosnia-Herzegovina
- PEN Català
- Croatian PEN
- PEN Club of Cuban Writers in Exile
- Danish PEN
- English PEN
- PEN Esperanto
- French PEN
- PEN Gambia
- German PEN
- PEN Guinea-Bissau
- PEN Iraq
- Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann
- PEN Japan
- Kurdish PEN
- PEN Liechtenstein
- PEN Malawi
- PEN Melbourne
- PEN Moscow
- PEN Myanmar
- PEN Netherlands
- PEN Nigeria
- PEN Norway
- PEN Perth
- PEN Philippines
- PEN Portugal
- PEN Québec
- PEN Romania
- San Miguel de Allende PEN
- Scottish PEN
- PEN Sierra Leone
- Slovene PEN
- PEN South India Centre
- Swedish PEN
- Swiss Italian and Reto-Romanch speaking PEN
- PEN Trieste
- PEN Turkey
- PEN Uganda
- Vietnamese Abroad PEN Centre
- Wales PEN Cymru
