(25 Apr 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Istanbul - 29 April 2015
1. STILL of Osman Kavala, Turkish philanthropist, businessman and human rights defender
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Istanbul - 25 April 2022
2. Various of media scrum outside court
3. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Ozgur Ozel, parliamentary group leader of Turkish Republican People's Party:
"Today we say: Someone tried to condemn environmentalists and enlightened people. Court doors and prison bars closing on them cannot condemn them. Gezi is free. Kavala is free. All our friends arrested today are free, Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be convicted before history. He will be held accountable. This is our promise, this is our promise, this is our promise.
4. Activists
5. Close of woman crying
6. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Filiz Kerestecioglu, Turkish People's Democratic Party lawmaker:
"Our friends taken today are our souls. They have nothing to do with any crime. Their crime is that Gezi Park remains as Gezi Park. They are city planners, architects, lawyers. That's all they do. We've all been there (at Gezi Park, during the protests), if they're going to judge, let them judge us all. None of us are afraid, we will not be intimidated. We promise this."
7. Istanbul courthouse sign
8. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Akcay Tasci, lawyer:
"Those who have not punished a single person for even a single day for the lives that we have lost since 2013 said, without any shame, that our friends who did not step a foot outside the country are flight risks, (and that) Taksim solidarity and Gezi (mass protests in 2013), that have been on trial for five years with life without parole, are 'a conspiracy with its roots abroad'. Can Atalay said in the previous hearing, 'We will not run away'. He said, 'Give as much punishment as you want, we will not run away. We are the real sons of this country, we don't recognize your verdict. If we are punished, we will be punished,' he said. Now there will be an appeal and a supreme court, as if they are a court, and if this court can even be called a court. Of course, we will wait for their processes. But our word is this: 'Everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance,' we said. Inside, we continued to shout the same slogan after the verdict."
9. Wide of Istanbul courthouse
10. Riot control and police vehicle
11. Patrolling police officer
STORYLINE:
A Turkish Court on Monday sentenced prominent Turkish civil rights activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala to life in prison without parole, finding him guilty of attempting to overthrow the government in connection with the 2013 mass anti-government protests.
Western governments and rights groups strongly criticized the ruling.
The court in Istanbul also sentenced seven other defendants, including 71-year-old architect Mucella Yapici, to 18 years in prison each for “aiding” the attempt.
It ordered that the activists, who were not in custody, be immediately arrested, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
The verdict, which is likely to harm Turkey's ties with Western nations, comes as Europe’s top human rights body, the Council of Europe, launched infringement procedures against Turkey for refusing to abide by a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which in 2019 called for Kavala’s release on grounds that his rights had been violated.
Kavala, 64, has been jailed in Silivri prison, on the outskirts of Istanbul, since he was detained October 18, 2017, accused of financing the protests.
He and other defendants denied all the accusations and are expected to appeal the verdicts.
He said allegations that he directed the protests are “not plausible.”
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