20 May 2021 – We, the undersigned PEN Centres, condemn the continued judicial harassment of all defendants in the Gezi trial, the new hearing of which takes place tomorrow. We further call for all charges against the defendants in this case to be dropped and for the publisher, civil society actor and human rights defender Osman Kavala’s immediate and unconditional release from prison.

Osman Kavala has spent over three-and-a-half years behind bars. First detained in October 2017, he was officially charged 16 months after his arrest – accused of being responsible for crimes allegedly committed by protestors across Turkey during the 2013 Gezi Park protests. Kavala faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole, with an additional 20-year sentence for ‘espionage’. He remains in pre-trial detention in Silivri Prison, outside Istanbul.

In December 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled for Osman Kavala’s immediate release, as it found his detention ‘pursued an ulterior purpose…namely that of reducing [him] to silence’. Yet the Turkish authorities continue to ignore the binding judgement of the Court and decisions from the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.

The majority of defendants in this case were acquitted in February 2020. The prosecutor’s appeal against their acquittals was upheld in November 2020 and a retrial was ordered. We call for this prolonged, judicial harassment to end.

Representatives of PEN Centres have been present at every one of the hearings in the Gezi case and observed the judicial theatre that took place, and which has no basis in law. We support the defendants in this case for exercising their constitutional rights to assembly and demonstration.

We urgently call for Osman Kavala’s immediate and unconditional release from prison, and for all charges to be dropped against the defendants in this case.

SIGNATORIES

1. PEN International
2. PEN Afrikaans
3. PEN America
4. PEN Bangladesh
5. PEN Belarus
6. PEN Bosnia-Herzegovina
7. PEN Brazil
8. PEN Canada
9. PEN Català
10. Croatian PEN
11. PEN Club of Cuban Writers in Exile
12. Danish PEN
13. English PEN
14. PEN Eritrea in Exile
15. PEN Esperanto
16. French PEN
17. PEN Gambia
18. German PEN
19. PEN Guinea-Bissau
20. PEN Iraq
21. Iranian PEN in Exile
22. Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann
23. PEN Japan
24. Kurdish PEN
25. PEN Liechtenstein
26. PEN Malawi
27. PEN Melbourne
28. PEN Moscow
29. PEN Myanmar
30. PEN Netherlands
31. PEN Nigeria
32. PEN Norway
33. PEN Perth
34. PEN Philippines
35. PEN Portugal
36. PEN Québec
37. PEN Romania
38. San Miguel de Allende PEN
39. Scottish PEN
40. PEN Sierra Leone
41. Slovene PEN
42. PEN South India Centre
43. Swedish PEN
44. Swiss Italian and Reto-Romanch speaking PEN
45. PEN Trieste
46. PEN Turkey
47. PEN Uganda
48. Vietnamese Abroad PEN Centre
49. Wales PEN Cymru