Istanbul (AFP) – Osman Kavala, imprisoned in Turkey for almost 3 years without being convicted of any crime, is a philanthropist and businessman who, according to his supporters, has tirelessly used his wealth for society.
The 62-year-old scored 1,000 bar days on Monday, prompting a new wave of social media help under the hashtag #FreeOsmanKavala.
Little known to the public before his arrest, it was a symbol of what critics call an offensive against civil society under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that is, in the wake of a failed coup in 2016.
Kavala was first accused of encouraging so-called Gezi Park protests in 2013, but when he was acquitted of the fees in February, he was arrested again without delay for being involved in the coup.
He is now accused of overthrowing the constitutional order and of espionage.
“We’ve had 1,000 days of flying in our lives,” his wife, Ayse Bugra, said at a news convention on Saturday.
“My husband’s mom is over 90 and doesn’t know if she’ll ever see her son again,” she added.
The U.S. State Department asked for Kavala’s release on Monday, and spokesman Cale Brown called for a “fair and prompt resolution” of his case.
Kavala was excluded from a prisoner release in April in which thousands of others were released as a precaution against the coronavirus outbreak.
In a message edited in English from his mobile in Silivri prison on the outskirts of Istanbul on Monday, Kavala criticized “illegal practices in politically motivated cases.”
“Despite all this, and I am one of the other people who feels the weight of this deteriorating situation, I have not given up hope,” he said.
– ‘Never condescendingly’ –
Born in Paris in 1957, Kavala graduated in economics from the University of Manchester. He took over his father’s business after his death in 1982.
It has supported artistic and social projects and is seen as bridges of inter-community construction in a deeply divided country.
His friends describe him as humble but stubborn, polite but direct, authoritarian but never condescending.
“I would describe him as a colleague who as a boss. Osman bey never sponsored us,” Asena Gunal, Anatolia’s executive director of culture, employing an honorary name to show her respect, told AFP.
Kavala is president of Anatolian Culture, or Anadolu Kultur in Turkish, which promotes the art of human rights, in addition to neighboring Armenia, with which Turkey has no diplomatic relations.
“She has never boasted of her wealth, has a humble personality who is ashamed of everything she owns,” Gunal said at the Depo Arts Center in Istanbul’s exclusive Tophane district, an ancient tobacco depot that Kavala inherited and restored.
– ‘unfair’ –
Umit Kivanc, whose friendship with Kavala dates back more than 40 years, dismissed his caricatures as a wealthy bourgeois.
“Rico, bourgeois, businessman? No, Osman’s a cursed leftist,” Kivanc said.
“This is a guy who works for justice in the globalArray … (But) Turkey is a land that destroys all that is good.”
The court ruled in February that there was no evidence that Kavala had funded the Gezi Park protests in 2013, which began with plans to urbanize a rare green area in central Istanbul before becoming widespread anti-government protests.
He was the only one of nine defendants arrested in the criminal trial.
Shortly after his acquittal, Kavala faced two new arrest warrants on espionage charges, which he discovered were “more ridiculous charges than the previous ones.”
“It’s the last user of any attempt at a hit and, in fact, it’s dreadful to see him attacked as he was and bent on an incomprehensible political game,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb of Human Rights Watch.
Burhan Sonmez, a member of PEN International, recalled an emotional moment when Kavala asked him to tell his foreign supporters not to attend one of his main audiences on December 24, saying they would spend Christmas Eve with family and friends.