Other countries have no right to intervene in Turkey's domestic affairs, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ said Tuesday commenting on reactions after the Turkish court convicted jailed businessperson Osman Kavala for life.

Speaking to reporters, Bozdağ said Turkey is a state of law and that everyone should respect that.

"Neither the United States nor any other country has the right to have a say in Turkey's trial. Let them mind their own business," he said.

A Turkish court on Monday sentenced activist Kavala to life in prison on charges of trying to topple the government that had already seen him jailed without a conviction for more than four years.

The panel of three judges also jailed seven other defendants for 18 years each on the charge of aiding the attempt to overthrow then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government during large-scale Gezi Park protests in 2013.

The ruling drew swift condemnation from some of Turkey's main allies. Washington said it was "deeply troubled" by the "unjust" conviction.

"The United States is deeply troubled and disappointed by the court's decision," U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.

Germany said the 64-year-old campaigner must be "freed immediately", while two leading European parliamentarians who coordinate ties with Ankara said the "regrettable" ruling showed there was "little to no EU perspective for the current Turkey".

France condemned the life sentence handed by the Turkish court to Kavala, saying his detention violated Turkey's international obligations.

"France strongly condemns the life sentence," the foreign ministry said in a statement, calling for Kavala's "immediate release" and the dropping of all charges against him.

He had been detained for more than four-and-a-half years "in violation of Turkey's international obligations," the French ministry added.

The bloc's chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, condemned the sentence for ignoring orders for Kavala's release from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

"Today, we have witnessed a travesty of justice of spectacular proportions," said Amnesty International's Europe director Nils Muiznieks.

Kavala told the court by video link from his high-security prison near Istanbul that he viewed the entire process as a "judicial assassination".

"These are conspiracy theories drafted on political and ideological grounds," Kavala told the court moments before the sentence.

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 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.