A prominent human rights organization urged the Turkish leadership on Monday to drop charges against 16 people detained over their participation in the 2013 protests in Ankara's Gezi park, citing lack of evidence and slamming the indictment as politically motivated
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2019) A prominent human rights organization urged the Turkish leadership on Monday to drop charges against 16 people detained over their participation in the 2013 protests in Ankara's Gezi park, citing lack of evidence and slamming the indictment as politically motivated.
On March 4, an Istanbul court received the 657-page indictment of leaders of the Gezi park protests. The document describes the events as a conspiracy to overthrow the government. The trial is scheduled to begin in Istanbul on June 24.
"A thorough examination of the indictment ... reinforces concerns that a politically motivated smear campaign advanced at the highest level of the Turkish government has become the basis for a criminal prosecution. Since there is absolutely no evidence in this indictment that Kavala and the others planned the Gezi protests, let alone conspired to foment an illegal uprising, the manifestly ill-founded charges against them should be dropped," Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said.
The organization also said that lawyers of philanthropist Osman Kavala, one of those 16 detained within the case, told HRW that they had learned on Thursday that the Turkish leadership was seeking to add charges related to the 2016 failed coup attempt to justify Kavala's detention.
The protests began in Istanbul on May 31, 2013, over the decision of the authorities to cut down the Gezi Park next to Taksim Square to build a shopping and entertainment center in its place. The protesters were supported in half of the country's provinces and the Turks living in Europe. The rallies escalated into a wave of opposition protests to government policies.
Among the 16 detainees are also actor Memet Ali Alabora and former editor-in-chief of the oldest Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, Can Dundar. In February, the Anadolu news agency reported that Istanbul prosecutors had demanded aggravated life sentences for all activists.
There are different types of life imprisonment in Turkey. An ordinary life sentence gives a convict a chance to be released after 30 years or after 36 years if he received more than one life sentence. Life imprisonment for aggravated crime suggests that such an opportunity can be provided after 36 and 40 years, respectively. Those sentenced for terrorism are not eligible for a chance to be released.
