Turkish patron and philanthropist Osman Kavala, imprisoned for four years without trial, will remain in detention at least until a next hearing scheduled for mid-January, an Istanbul court ordered Friday, November 26.

A decision which places Turkey under the threat of suspension by the Council of Europe.

A major figure in civil society, Osman Kavala, accused by the regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of having sought to destabilize Turkey, faces life imprisonment.

He refused on Friday, as he had announced, to appear before the judges and be represented.

"Our right to a fair trial has been denied to us. Therefore, we do not plan to present a defense today," his lawyer, Tolga Aytore, told the court.

The Council of Europe threatened in September Ankara with sanctions which could be taken at its next session which opens on Tuesday, if the opponent is not released by then.

Turkey would then be the second country to undergo an "infringement procedure": so far only Russia has been suspended under this procedure, from 2017 to 2019. "It's unfortunate, I really don't know what (the government) thinks ", slipped to AFP a diplomat present in court on Friday, on condition of anonymity.

"This is their last chance," he had previously estimated.

"Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe and must respect its decisions. Otherwise they will put themselves in a delicate situation," he added of Turkish officials.

"Conspiracy theses"

In an interview with AFP from his cell in mid-October, Osman Kavala had estimated that his detention allowed the power of Recep Tayyip Erdogan to justify his "conspiracy theories".

"Since I am accused of having taken part in a plot organized by foreign powers, freeing myself would weaken this fiction and that is certainly not what the government wants," he noted.

Osman Kavala's fate was recently at the heart of a diplomatic crisis that was finally cleared up, when a dozen ambassadors who had called for his release were threatened with deportation. 

This last hearing on Friday, the umpteenth episode in a series which has so far always maintained or returned him in detention, follows that of October 8, when the judges considered that they lacked "new elements" to release Osman Kavala. .

A large crowd, including opposition parliamentarians, Western diplomats and relatives of the accused, including his wife, were present in the courtroom, AFP noted.

Osman Kavala, who has become the regime's bête noire, is in particular in the crosshairs for having supported the anti-government demonstrations in 2013 that targeted Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then Prime Minister.

Acquitted for the first time in February 2020, he was placed in police custody the next day and then reincarcerated, accused of having "supported" the attempted coup against Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016.

In December 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ordered his "immediate release" - without result.

A next hearing has been set for January 17 before the Istanbul court.

With AFP

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