The decision of Turkey's Constitutional Court to reject businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala's appeal to end his two-year pre-trial detention violates human rights, a prominent international human rights watchdog said on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd May, 2019) The decision of Turkey's Constitutional Court to reject businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala's appeal to end his two-year pre-trial detention violates human rights, a prominent international human rights watchdog said on Wednesday.Kavala was detained in 2017 over alleged involvement in the 2016 failed coup attempt and kept behind bars pending trial ever since. Earlier in the day, Turkey's Constitutional Court rejected his release appeal.
"Today's inexplicable decision by Turkey's highest court rubs salt into the wound of injustice. Osman Kavala's rights have been abused. He should not have spent a single day behind bars, let alone nearly 600 days. The charges against him must be dropped and he must be immediately released," Amnesty International said, citing its Turkey Campaigner Milena Buyum.
The allegations against Kavala are "outlandish" and attempt to "to rewrite history and to silence one of Turkey's most prominent civil society figures," Buyum added.
On July 15, 2016, a military coup attempt, aimed at overthrowing the country's government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, took place in Turkey. It was promptly suppressed by government forces, but still left over 2,000 people injured and over 250 killed. Ankara has accused the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) of playing a key role in the military takeover attempt, which the cleric, who has been residing in the United States since 1999, has refuted.
Since the incident, scores of military personnel, teachers, reporters and activists have been arrested over their suspected links to FETO.
