Osman Kavala was "Turkey’s Soros'" who was behind the Gezi Park riots, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said late Wednesday as he underlined that the decision to jail the businessperson for life showed that Turkey's courts were independent.
In response to the West's criticism of the prison sentence handed down to Kavala, Erdoğan, speaking at an iftar, or fast-breaking dinner held during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, with representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Istanbul, said that the convict was the "behind-the-scenes coordinator" of the Gezi Park events.
"Our judiciary made its final decision on him (Kavala). Some circles are seriously disturbed by this decision," Erdoğan said and called for respecting the verdict.
Erdoğan said the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which had called for an end to Kavala's detention without a conviction, as well as Ankara's Western allies, would have to abide by the court's verdict.
After being detained without a conviction for 4 1/2 years, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole on Monday for organizing and financing nationwide protests in 2013.
Seven others were handed sentences of 18 years. All denied the charges. They say the protests erupted spontaneously and were protected by constitutional rights, denying that they had organized them.
Ankara's Western allies, rights groups and the ECtHR say Monday's decision was politically motivated. Some opposition parties also criticized the verdict.
"Our judiciary has proved their independence by not bowing down to blackmail by those outside Turkey and their spokespeople," Erdoğan said in response.
"The decision regarding one person made some circles uncomfortable. This man was the Soros of Turkey and the behind-the-scenes coordinator of the Gezi events," he said, referring to prominent investor George Soros.
Kavala was detained on Oct. 18, 2017, over charges related to the 2013 Gezi Park protests. He was acquitted of all charges in February 2020, before an appeals court overturned this verdict.
He was also accused of involvement in the 2016 defeated coup orchestrated by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in Turkey and was remanded in custody on espionage charges.
The ECtHR called for Kavala's release and ruled his detention served to silence him. But Turkish courts have not freed Kavala and Ankara now faces being suspended from the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, after "infringement proceedings" were launched due to his continued detention. Ankara has denounced the moves as interference.
President Erdoğan subsequently said that Turkey will not respect the Council of Europe if it does not respect Turkish courts.
Turkey urged the Council of Europe not to interfere in the country's independent judiciary and to be impartial toward the country in response to the decision regarding the Kavala case.
Embassies of Ankara's Western allies, including the United States and Germany, also echoed the ECtHR call for Kavala's release last year.
Ankara nearly expelled 10 Western countries' envoys, including the U.S. and major European powers, after they made an appeal for Kavala's release last October.
The Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of these countries, accusing them of meddling in the Turkish judiciary, while Erdoğan announced he had instructed Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to declare the 10 ambassadors as persona non grata. However, the embassies took a step back, preventing the crisis from escalating further.
The diplomatic spat was resolved after the U.S. and several of the other countries issued statements saying they respected the United Nations convention requiring diplomats to not interfere in the host country's domestic affairs.