Rights Groups and Bar Associations: Kavala and Aksakoğlu Should be Released

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Rights groups and occupational organizations have released a statement, demanding the release of Osman Kavala and Yiğit Aksakoğlu, who have been under pre-trial arrest in the Gezi Park case.

The bill of indictment alleges that the 16 people including Kavala and Aksakoğlu "guided" the 2013 Gezi Park protests and charges them with "attempt to overthrow the government or prevent the government from performing its duties."

İstanbul 30th Heavy Penal Court accepted the indictment on March 4. Kavala has been arrested since November 1, 2017, and Aksakoğlu has been arrested since November 16, 2018.

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The following organizations have signed the statement:

Amnesty International, Ankara Bar Association, Article 19, Association for Monitoring Equal Rights, Civil Rights Defenders, Citizens' Assembly Turkey, Diyarbakır Bar Association, Human Rights Association, Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, İzmir Bar Association, Kaos GL Association, Media and Law Studies Association, P24 Platform for Independent Journalism, Reporters Without Borders, Rights and Justice Platform, Social Policy Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association, The Rights Initiative, Truth Justice Memory Centre.

"Detention became a punishment"

Here is the full text of the statement:

"The investigation concerning the Gezi protests of 2013 has been concluded, and 16 persons, including Osman Kavala and Yiğit Aksakoğlu, who have both been detained pending trial, were indicted. It has been announced that the indictment was accepted on March 4, 2019 by Istanbul 30th High Criminal Court and the first hearing will be held on June 24-25, 2019.

"The deprivation of liberty suffered by Osman Kavala and Yiğit Aksakoğlu, who have arbitrarily been detained in Silivri Prison, has become a punishment that is at stark odds with international human rights law and standards. While Osman Kavala has been held in prison for over 16 months, it has been for almost 4 months since the imprisonment of Yiğit Aksakoğlu.

"The admission of the indictment demonstrates that the Court considers the collected evidence as concrete and sufficient to start the prosecution. This further exposes the arbitrariness of their detainment which is already manifestly ill-founded, as it is out of the question for the evidence regarding Gezi events, which began and ended in 2013, to be destroyed or altered in 2019.

"There is no rational explanation that requires the publicly recognized human rights defenders to be kept in jail pending trial. Kavala and Aksakoğlu must be immediately released without resorting to stereotypical and abstract justifications, such as "nature of the crime" or "circumstances of evidence", as it was done before to the detainees of Büyükada Case as well as Şebnem Korur Fincancı and Erol Önderoğlu, who had detained for participating in the Editor-in-Chief on Watch campaign, who were all released after the indictments against them were filed.

"The severe oppression of civil society should come to an end and a legal system in compliance with the human rights treaties to which Turkey is also a party should be reestablished."

What happened?

In raids conducted on November 16, 2018, Prof. Dr. Betül Tanbay, Prof. Dr. Turgut Turhanlı, Anadolu Kültür's Deputy Board Chair Yiğit Ekmekçi, Board Member Ali Hakan Altınay, General Coordinator Asena Günal, film producers Çiğdem Mater and Meltem Aslan, civil society employees Yiğit Aksakoğlu, Filiz Telek, Bora Sarı, Yusuf Cıvır, Ayşegül Güzel, Hande Özhabeş were detained.

Hande Özhabeş, Prof. Dr. Turgut Tarhanlı, Asena Günal ile Bora Sarı and Meltem Aslan were released at night after testimonies. Prof. Dr. Betül Tanbay, Yiğit Ekmekçi, Hakan Altınay, Yusuf Cıvır, Ayşegül Güzel and Çiğdem Mater were released on November 17.

Yiğit Aksakoğlu, who was doing civil society studies at the Bilgi University, was arrested.

Anadolu Kültür Board Chair Osman Kavala was arrested without an indictment November 1, 2017 and March 4, 2019.

An 657-page bill of indictment was completed on February 20 and sent to 30th Heavy Penal Court.

The indictment charges all the 16 defendants with "attempting to overthrow the government of the Republic of Turkey or preventing it from performing its duties" upon the Turkish Penal Code Article 312/2.

The other charges are, damage to property, qualified form of damage to property, Holding or handing over dangerous material, damaging places of worship and cemeteries, violation of the Law No. 6136 on Firearms and Knives Qualified looting (Turkish Penal Code Article 149), qualified bodily injury (Turkish Penal code Article 86), violation of the Law No. 2836 on the Conservation of Cultural and Natural Property.

The 16 defendants are alleged to be the "head executives" of the Gezi Park protests are Osman Kavala, Yiğit Aksakoğlu, Ali Hakan Altınay, Mücella Yapıcı, Ayşe Pınar Alabora, Can Dündar, Çiğdem Mater, Gökçe Yılmaz, Handan Meltem Arıkan, Hanzade Hikmet Germiyanoğlu, İnanç Ekmekçi, Mehmet Ali Alabora, Mine Özerden, Can Atalay, Tayfun Kahraman, and Yiğit Ali Ekmekçi.

The bill of indictment was accepted by the court on March 4. The first hearing will be held on June 24.

While Osman Kavala's application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has not been concluded, Yiğit Aksakoğlu's attorneys appealed to the Constitutional Court.

(AS/VK)