Letter From Osman Kavala in 15th Month of His Arrest

Click to read the article in Turkish

Human rights activist and businessperson Osman Kavala has sent a letter from the Silivri Prison in İstanbul, where he has been arrested for the last 15 months.

In his letter, Kavala underpinned that he has not been questioned by the Prosecutor's Office and his indictment has not been filed yet.

Here is the full text of Kavala's letter:

"At the end of January, I will have completed my 15th month in Silivri. I am still waiting for the indictment to be prepared. I have not been questioned by the prosecutor to this day. They have rejected our demands for release 19 times without feeling the necessity to listen to me. All these can be seen as a reflection of the belief that my arrest and its extension are 'reasonable' and 'proper'. The expressions that 'it was determined' that I 'financed and organized' the Gezi protests confirm this situation."

Ministry of Justice requested additional time from the ECtHR

"We applied to the Constitutional Court in my second month under arrest and to the ECtHR (European Court of Human Rights) in my eighth month under arrest. The ECtHR accepted our request that the case should be evaluated with priority and requested a defense from the Ministry of Justice. After the time expired on January 10, 2018, we learned that the Ministry of Justice got additional time from the ECtHR.

"In this period, me spending 15 months in Silivri awaiting an indictment can be conceived as an extrajudicial sentence. However, the request for additional time from the ECtHR makes me think that there are some hesitations about the appropriateness of the verdicts of the arrest and the extension of the arrest.

If the charges of 'changing the constitutional order" and 'overthrowing the government' directed at me are based on such clear and certain findings as it was stated in the press release of the Prosecutor's Office, I suppose the indictment would be prepared and a defense statement would be sent to the ECtHR."

Judicial Reform Strategy Document

"When The Minister of Justice was mentioning the 'unproportional interference against basic rights and freedoms can cause valid criticism and this kind of interference damages the legitimacy of the judicial decisions and the public support to the judiciary,' I think he has cases in mind similar to my arrest.

If the Judicial Reform Strategy Document, prepared by the Ministry of Justice and expected to be announced in the following days, underpins that respecting the presumption of innocence is of crucial importance by confirming that freedom is the most basic human right, I think it can pave way for the judicial decisions to be compliant to the Constitution and ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) norms.

Otherwise, allegations and arrests which are not based on strong reasons will continue to restrict the other people's individual rights and freedoms like me."

(HK/VK)