Thread by @MilenaBuyum

Press conference starting, Ilkan Koyuncu, Deniz Tolga Aytöre, Köksal Bayraktar and Prof Ayşe Buğra.

Köksal Bayraktar: I will start with a summary of how it all started. Almost three years ago #Osman Kavala was detained from a plane as he arrived back to Istanbul from Gaziantep.

https://twitter.com/milenabuyum/status/1286934932107952129

Bayraktar: the initial detention was based on two articles of the TR penal code - art 309 (attempting to overthrow the constitutional order) and art 312 (attempting to overthrow the government). For 15 months he was kept in prison not knowing what these charges was based on.

Bayraktar: after almost two years, his detention under art 309 was lifted in October 2019, without any indictment drawn under this charge. During this time his prosecution under art 312 carried on and he was acquitted.

On the day he was acquitted, the prosecutor requested...

... his remand under the very charge that had been lifted, later also bringing a charge of ‘espionage’ under article 328.

Ilkan Koyuncu: #OsmanKavala has been acquitted. He has been in prison for 1,000 days. He isn’t a flight risk. For someone to commit the crime of espionage he would need to have access to state secrets. He isn’t a public/state official. How he could have such access is not clear

Koyuncu: in a nutshell he is being kept in prison under three charges but only under one investigation. He was only once questioned about Gezi Park protests in these last almost three years. So only one set of information is being used to bring about these charges.

Koyuncu: we are very clear that he is innocent and has not committed any of these crimes he is accused of.

Prof Ayşe Buğra: my husband #OsmanKavala was arrested again on the day he was acquitted.

What my husband’s case shows is that we have lost all sense of reality. Legal concepts such as reasonable doubt had disappeared.

Prof Buğra: the question is why is #OsmanKavala in prison. Some people might think there must be a reason.

Prof Buğra: although we took action against some newspapers that have been publishing baseless accounts nothing came of it.

My husband’s mother is 90 years old. She doesn’t know whether she will see him again.

Journalist asks a question about the current stage of the Gezi trial.

Koyuncu: the acquittals are subject to appeal by the prosecutors. No one is currently held on pretrial detention so this will take time

Question about @ECHR_CEDH judgment.

Bayraktar: the judgment is final. Despite this it was not executed. We have submitted an additional application regarding the non execution of the ruling; the committee of ministers will be taking a decision about this in September.

Question by @yozgatedirnetra from @AGOSgazetesi: is there an indictment for the espionage charge?

Aytöre: there isn’t. We have always put an emphasis on a reasonable time for the indictment to be drawn up. The espionage charge is based on the same acts, from seven years go.

Aytöre: how come this investigation did not take place for seven years? This information was in the Gezi file, where he was of course acquitted. We don’t know when the indictment will be drawn up.

Bayraktar: because Henri Barkey’s name has been thrown up, the @ECHR_CEDH deals with it in the judgment which they said was insignificant - #OsmanKavala and Mr Barkey came across one another in a restaurant. It’s incredibly upsetting and wrong to suggest this amounts to espionage

Aytöre: the rationale for 309 and 328 is the same and @ECHR_CEDH ruling deals with 309.

You should be very clear: the bringing about of article 328 is about circumventing his acquittals under 312 and 309. There is no espionage, no evidence of it.

Aytöre: we asked for the documents that they might claim is the basis of the espionage charge. We have received nothing.

.@banuguven: what legal means/remedies do you have at your disposal at this point? Prof Buğra said his treatment is tantamount to torture. What can you do about this?

Koyuncu: we will fight against the nonsensical allegation of espionage, for it to be dropped.

Koyuncu: we will keep on requesting his release. We have taken all the steps necessary and can be taken.

Mr Kavala is very strong physically and mentally. He is in solitary confinement. What he was subjected to is not easy but he is coping.

Koyuncu: we have made an application on 4 May to the constitutional court which has not been concluded.

Bayraktar: this second CC application was based on the espionage charge. Yesterday we had confirmation that our application has been deemed admissible.

Aytöre: when the Gezi proceedings were going on we said and we maintain, this prosecution is politically motivated. Politicians made public statements, the judges who ruled for acquittals were subjected to an investigation.

Koyuncu: the prosecutor can make a request and judges can decide. We cannot say definitively what motivates either, all we can do is defend our client.

Aytöre: from the first two hearings the presiding judge in the Gezi trial voted for #OsmanKavala’s release and he was removed.

Q about #COVID19 and how #OsmanKavala is coping.

Prof Buğra: because he is in almost isolation he is quite protected. During the lockdown I could not see him, I last saw him in 19 June and will see him on 28 July. This has been incredibly difficult for us.

Q about Art 18 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Bayraktar: the @ECHR_CEDH found violation of art 18 and the reason this is really important is bc it is clear that political motivation cannot be behind the violation of human rights.

Koyuncu: @ECHR_CEDH judgment is final. Turkey is in the company of Russia and Azerbaïdjan. Do we want to live in a country where people are held in prison in the absence of substantive evidence.

The press conference ends.

.@threadreaderapp please unroll