A conversation with Prisoner of Conscience Osman Kavala, by Amnesty International Türkiye’s Günal Kurşun
A few weeks ago, as we approached the sombre milestone of Osman Kavala’s eighth year of unjust imprisonment, I visited him in the high security wing of Istanbul’s infamous jail, colloquially known as “the Silivri dungeon”.
Sitting in the room reserved for lawyers’ visits, I sat face-to-face to Osman Kavala. We looked at each other through a thick pane of glass, rusted around its metal edges.
I began by passing on greetings from many individual human rights defenders, together with collective greetings from colleagues at many civil society organizations.
“Please convey my greetings to everyone,” replied Kavala, clear and resolute.
And so began a conversation that would flow like water across the space between us.
Kavala remains hopeful about Türkiye’s future; he believes that law and the public conscience will, sooner or later, find their way to the truth. For his own future, however, he is less optimistic: “It is hard to expect any change for me in the near future,” he says.
In the stillness of that room, two sentiments hang side by side—hope for his country and a quiet hopelessness about the prospect of his own freedom.
To be a bystander to this injustice and oppression makes us feel that not only Osman Kavala, but all of us, are prisoners
During my visit, the word “hope” circulated less as a private feeling than as a civic virtue. Kavala observed that diverse segments of society still show a will to live together; that young people’s ties with the wider world have not been severed; that the institutional ground of law, despite everything, has not been entirely razed; and Türkiye’s tradition of opposition has not been lost. Even through this prolonged darkness, a culture of solidarity has endured.
His view of his own situation is less positive.
“What I am facing is not a matter of one individual; it is a matter of the rule of law and the right to a fair trial. My personal freedom is, of course, important; but the core issue is the evidentiary standards on which judgments rest and the independence of the judiciary from political influence,” he tells me. “Keeping the legal debate within the language of law is the soundest contribution we can make to our shared future.”
On the prison system more broadly, he points out that compulsory transfers have “become a kind of torture for both the prisoners and their families… Even in the period following the 1980 coup, when physical torture was widespread, our judges were more independent than they are today.”
Osman Kavala was detained in 2017 and – despite a complete failure by prosecuting authorities to provide any evidence to substantiate the baseless charges laid against him – sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Despite two binding judgements by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ordering his immediate release, Türkiye’s highest court upheld the life sentence for Osman Kavala in September 2023. Two Constitutional Court applications he made following his conviction, and after it was upheld, are still pending a decision.
In 2022, Amnesty International named Osman Kavala a prisoner of conscience and made clear that each day he spends behind bars is an affront to the concept of justice and human rights, principles that the Turkish state has committed itself to upholding.
Three years on, Kavala remains deprived of his liberty. His case is widely regarded as a test of Türkiye’s obligations within the ECtHR system and an indictment of the system itself. The ongoing failure by Turkish authorites to give effect to clear and binding judgments speaks to the Turkish judiciary’s posture toward international legal obligations not just in Türkiye but for other Council of Europe member states too.
On Saturday, dozens of prominent figures from the fields of journalism, academia, civil society and politics (including former President Abdullah Gül) shared messages of solidarity with Osman Kavala on the anniversary of his imprisonment. Writer Orhan Pamuk wrote: “To be a bystander to this injustice and oppression makes us feel that not only Kavala, but all of us, are prisoners.”
We must keep pursuing the truth, insist on the language of law, and keep solidarity alive
Türkiye now faces a painfully slow infringement procedure for its failure to comply with the ECtHR judgment. In the meantime, Osman Kavala is deprived of his liberty, alone in a cell in the dungeon.
As we parted, Kavala expressed his belief that Türkiye will find its way through law, reason and dialogue; yet he is realistic about the timetable of his own freedom: “In prison, one learns time differently. I try to anchor hope not to calendar pages but to principles,” he tells me.
Key among these principles is the right to a fair trial, reasonable suspicion, proportionate measures and judicial independence. But in Türkiye today, these principles are being tested for everyone. Only correct decisions in critical cases today will translate into legal security for us all tomorrow.
Before Osman Kavala is led back to his cell, he asked me to send his greetings to all human rights defenders and to everyone dismissed by emergency decrees after the failed 2016 coup. His message is more than a greeting. It is a call to action. “We must keep pursuing the truth, insist on the language of law, and keep solidarity alive.”
Günal Kurşun Lawyer, Amnesty International Türkiye Board Member
An extended version of this article was first published here by Bianet
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