Court acquits 9 in Gezi case

by Duvar English: The Istanbul 30th Heavy Penal Court on Feb. 18 acquitted 9 of the 16 suspects in the case into the Gezi Park protests of 2013. Businessman, philanthropist and human rights activist Osman Kavala is set to be freed.

[Photo: Supporters of those tried in the Gezi Park case are seen in front of a courthouse on Feb. 18.]

The case of seven defendants – Can Dündar, Mehmet Ali Alabora, Ayşe Pınar Alabora, Gökçe Yılmaz Handan, Handan Meltem Arıkan, İnanç Ekmekçi and Hanzade Hikmet Germiyanoğlu – who are abroad and were being tried in absentia, was separated but arrest warrants for them were lifted. 

Applause erupted in the courtroom and some people cried in disbelief when the decision was announced.

The suspects were being tried in the case into the Gezi Park protests, which took place in Istanbul’s Taksim following harsh government response to a group of protesters trying to prevent the cutting down of trees for a large development project planned by the government. Eight protesters and a police officer was killed during the demonstrations.

Kavala, who was accused of being one of the “managers and organizers” of the protests, was arrested in November 2017 on suspicion of attempting to overthrow the government and the constitutional order through force and violence.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Dec. 10, 2019 that Turkey violated Kavala’s rights, citing the violation of Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights, finding that his imprisonment involves a restriction on rights for an improper purpose, while also calling for his immediate release.

On Feb. 6, Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced its final opinion, seeking aggravated life sentences for Kavala, who was the only one in jail, Mücella Yapıcı and Yiğit Aksakoğlu, who was arrested in November 2018 and was freed on June 25, 2019 on probation, over “attempting to overthrow the government.”

Between 15 and 20 years in jail was sought for six others, Çiğdem Mater Utku, Ali Hakan Altınay, Mine Özerden, Şerafettin Can Atalay, Tayfun Kahraman and Yiğit Ali Ekmekçi, over “aiding attempted overthrow of the government.”

During the sixth hearing of the case on Feb. 18 that was attended by nearly 20 lawmakers from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), lawyer Bahri Belen said that the case would be crushed under the weight of “the glorious Gezi protests.”

The defendants and lawyers pointed to the lack of evidence in the case, as well as the trial being a political one.

Speaking at the court, Yapıcı said that she will not defend herself.

“The Gezi resistance can’t be tried. It doesn’t have an organization or a leader. I respectfully bow in front of the eight people who were killed during Gezi,” Yapıcı said.

Consul generals of Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands attended the hearing, as well as the envoys and envoy representatives of the Britain, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland and the United States.