A Turkish appeals court on Wednesday upheld the life sentence handed down in April against activist Osman Kavala, who is accused of financing anti-government ventures in 2013 and playing a relevant role in the failed coup attempt in 2016.
The court has also upheld the 18-year prison sentence for seven other defendants for complicity in the crime in the case known as ‘Gezi Park’, Turkish news agency Anatolia reported.
Kavala has been in prison since 2017 awaiting trial on the charges against him and bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights have advocated for his release.
Throughout this time, Kavala has denied all charges and his lawyers have gone so far as to describe his detention as unjust as being based on «political motives» of an «abstract, baseless and fictitious» nature.
Already in November last year, when the Turkish judiciary decided to extend the detention of the activist and philanthropist, there were critical voices against his imprisonment and even a diplomatic crisis broke out between Turkey and other Western partners such as the United States and Germany.
At the time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan even suggested the expulsion of several ambassadors from Ankara for supporting Kavala’s release in a letter.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
