Gezi Trial: Prosecutor Requests Aggravated Life Sentence for Kavala, Yapıcı, Aksakoğlu

About Gezi Trial

It has been 78 months since an investigation was launched into Gezi Park protests, 26 months since Osman Kavala was arrested and 19 months since the bill of indictment was shared with the public and the trial started.

* Businessperson Osman Kavala, who was on his way back from Antep, was taken into custody at İstanbul Atatürk Airport on October 18, 2017.

* On November 1, 2017, it was announced that Kavala was arrested on charges of "attempting to change the Constitutional order and to overthrow the government." In the official document referring him to court with a request of arrest, it was alleged that Kavala was the head and financier of Gezi incidents.

* While Kavala and his attorneys were prevented from seeing the file of the investigation with restrictions, the content of the file was served to the media.

* On November 16, 2018, a wave of detentions targeted several people, including some executives of Anadolu Kültür Inc. cofounded by Osman Kavala.

* The previously acquitted members of Taksim Solidarity platform were also summoned to depose and it was reported in the news that there was indeed a more extensive list of investigation.

* Imprisoned for 19 months without standing before the judge and without a bill of indictment prepared by the prosecutor's office, even Kavala and his attorneys also had to follow the course of the investigation from the press.

* Almost 1.5 months passed without any judicial processes.

* The bill of indictment prepared the prosecutor's office was announced on February 19, 2019 and accepted by the court on March 4.

* Issued against Gezi incidents from six years ago in 16 months, the indictment demanded life sentence for 16 people.

* The indictment and its annexes were mostly based on wiretapping evidence. It was announced that, mostly consisting of wiretapping evidence, the 657-page indictment also had over 8,000-page additional documents.

* The first hearing of the case was held on June 24, 2019. The defendants presented their statements of defense. Yiğit Aksakoğlu, one of the two arrested defendants of the time, was released.

* Announcing its ruling on the individual application of Osman Kavala on May 22, 2019, the Constitutional Court concluded that there was "no violation" despite the dissenting opinion of its own rapporteur.

* Requests of release for Osman Kavala were rejected in all three hearings on June 24, July 18 and October 9.

* Since the Gezi Trial started, the defendants and audience were faced with three different court boards. The presiding judge who requested the release of Osman Kavala was immediately dismissed from his duty.

* The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced its ruling on the individual application of Osman Kavala on December 10, 2019.

*Accordingly, the ECtHR has unanimously ruled that there had been a violation of Article 5/1 (right to liberty and security) of the European Convention on Human Rights, and a violation of Article 5/4 (right to a speedy decision on the lawfulness of detention) of the Convention.

The Court has said, "By six votes to one, that there had been a violation of Article 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights) taken together with Article 5 § 1, and that the respondent State was to take every measure to put an end to the applicant's detention and to secure his immediate release."

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* Now, the court is expected to abide by this verdict.