H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan President of the Republic of Turkey T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Genel Sekreterliği 06689 Çankaya, Ankara Turkey Via Email: cumhurbaskanligi@tccb.gov.tr Via the Turkish Embassy in London,United Kingdom Dear President Erdogan, I am William Nicholas Gomes, a British human rights activist and freelance journalist. I am the director and Host of…
TUR 002 / 0422 / OBS 033 Sentencing / Arbitrary detention / Judicial harassment Turkey April 29, 2022 The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights…
May 21, 2021
A retrial for Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala and 15 others accused of organizing the 2013 Gezi Park protests opened on Friday, in a case that human rights organizations say is emblematic of Turkey’s crackdown on civil society.
Turkish prosecutors allege that Kavala coordinated and financed the nationwide unrest that erupted in central Istanbul, sparked by a heavy-handed police response to environmentalists protesting the park’s planned demolition. He was arrested in November 2017.
In February 2020, Kavala was acquitted of the Gezi Park-related charge, but rearrested hours later on charges of spying for the United States and aiding in the attempted 2016 coup that sought to topple Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan. Kavala denies all the allegations.