A Turkish court on Monday sentenced jailed businessperson Osman Kavala to life in prison after he was found guilty of attempting to overthrow the government by financing 2013 nationwide protests.
Kavala, 64, has been in jail for 4 1/2 years and denies the charges that he and 15 others faced over the Gezi Park protests, which began as small demonstrations in Istanbul and transformed into nationwide riots, which left eight protesters and a police officer dead.
The court in Istanbul also sentenced seven others to 18 years in jail for aiding the attempt to overthrow the government. The court said it decided to acquit Kavala of espionage charge due to lack of evidence.
It ordered that those who were not in custody be immediately arrested, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.
Kavala was detained on Oct. 18, 2017, over charges of 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 European Court of Human Rights (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, which Ankara denounced as interference.
President Recep Tayyip 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.
Kavala denies the claims and has branded the charges in the indictment as "politically motivated."