A Turkish court has ruled that Osman Kavala remains in custody.

The nightmare that the 64-year-old cultural promoter and human rights activist finds himself in continues.

In political court proceedings, the Turkish judiciary is subject to the instructions of President Erdogan.

Many observers were certain that he would give in this time.

Because the case of Osman Kavala, who has been sitting in the maximum security prison in Silivri for four years without a judgment, has long ceased to be an internal Turkish affair.

It is an unprecedented disregard for the rule of law, with which President Erdogan is once again showing the world that my will is paramount in Turkey.

When Kavala was arrested in 2017 and dragged to the pillory with a great roar of the pro-government media, he was hardly known to the public;

Erdogan called him from then on the "red Soros".

He initially accused him of having been involved in the organization and financing of the Gezi protests in 2013.

Then it was said that Kavala had participated in the attempted coup in 2016, which could not be proven either.

In reality, it is about something else: Erdogan is a thorn in the side of Kavala's financial independence and his commitment to civil society.

Kavala embodies everything that Erdogan is not

The Turkish President is repugnant to anything that stimulates independent, critical thinking. Even more so when a person like Kavala is behind the projects. With his cosmopolitanism, intellectuality and his calm demeanor, he is everything that Erdogan does not embody - and that should have no place in his "new Turkey". Kavala's cultural foundation Anadolu Kültür operates cultural centers in neglected regions of the country, restored Armenian monasteries and supported Turkish student exchanges with Europe.

The renewed refusal of the Turkish court to finally let justice prevail has not only dramatic consequences for Kavala.

It also means that the Council of Europe will start a process of elimination against Ankara in the coming week.

He threatened to release Kavala after Turkey had not followed the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights.

Turkey would then be the first country in the more than seventy-year history of the Council of Europe to be excluded from the organization.

Erdogan doesn't care.

But for all those people in Turkey who fear nothing more than that Turkey is moving further away from Europe, it is a slap in the face.