When taken into account the attempts lasting almost 10 years in order to punish the participants of Gezi resistance, it would be clearly seen that this trial had been staged as per the political needs and aims of the one man government.
İhsan Çaralan
Gezi trial has been brought to an end by the scandal verdict of İstanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court.
Sentencing Osman Kavala to aggravated imprisonment for life, the court also sentenced Mücella Yapıcı, Çiğdem Mater, Hakan Altınay, Mine Özerden, Can Atalay, Tayfun Kahraman, and Yiğit Ali Ekmekçi to 18 year imprisonment, and ordered all defendants be arrested!
While sentenced to aggravated imprisonment for life on the attempt to overthrow the government, Osman Kavala was acquitted and released on the charge of “espionage”!
When taken into account that the trial related to Gezi took place with the same evidences twice before, and resulted in the acquitment on charges twice, the arrest duration of Osman Kavala, number 1 defendant of this trial, which reached 1638 days with no lawful reason; and the disregard to the verdicts of the EHRT related to Gezi trial and Osman Kavala, that one of the judges of 13th Heavy Penal Court had been an AKP candidate for the candidacy of parliamentary membership, and that he had been appointed as judge after July 15 coup attempt, that one of the three judges of the trial, adding an annotation against this scandal verdict, said “I am of the opinion that the recordings of wire tabbing are of the nature of prohibited evidence, even if considered otherwise, there is no concrete proof to support the recordings of wire tabbing, (...) because there is no sufficient evidence to penalize the defendants for the crimes they are charged with, the defendants are to be acquitted; the arrested defendant Osman Kavala is to be released, other defendants are not to be arrested,” it is incontestable that this verdict will be contested for a longer time for its legal, political... every aspect.
Even starting in the very first days, Erdogan and his party have not only considered Gezi resistance as an uprising with the aim of overthrowing the AKP government, as a “coup attempt” that George Soros had been behind, but they also persistently continued to point at Gezi resistance as the reason for their failures in all fields of life from politics to economy, to social life, culture, education...
However, it would only be possible to be able to open up a trial to penalize Gezi resistance, through re-structuring the courts as proponent as required, and appointing the proponent lawyers to their posts as judges and prosecutors. And, only through such astounding charge as “espionage and attempt to overthrow the government” has Gezi trial been opened, and brought to a phase to sentence Kavala and 7 distinguished intellectuals known in the struggle for democracy to heavy punishments.
When taken into account the attempts lasting almost 10 years in order to punish the participants of Gezi, more over to punish this great people’s resistance, it would be clearly seen that this trial had been staged as per the political needs and aims of the one man government, it has been progressed as a trial motivated and directed from the top of the government. And the final verdict, in agreement with this staging, without needing to base it on any legal real evidence, in agreement with its aim, has been given with completely political motives.
Yes, İstanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court has given its verdict, therefore it has concluded the trial from its own point of view with a verdict called as “scandal” by everyone feeling concerned about rightfulness-lawfulness. But this trial is not over yet!
This verdict is not final for it is first to go to the appeal, and then to the Court of Cassation. But, more importantly, this trial has not yet been over because it is about an environmental protest spread over 79 provinces and participated by 4,5 million people (in actuality 10 million) based on even police record, and because it is the most massive social protest in the history of Turkey, lasting for as long as a month, realised with demands of freedom against the government’s interferences with the social life.
Because, 13th Heavy Penal Court’s verdict is not only for the intellectuals, democrats brought to the trial, it is a “punishment” given to the millions joined at Gezi!
The true trial in the conscience of public opinion understands the decision of the 13th Heavy Penal Court as such. Because, as the 13th Heavy Penal Court tried Gezi, the judges of the 13th Heavy Penal Court and the powers behind them have been put on trial in the court formed in the conscience of the people the “jury” of which is the tens of millions that embraced the demands of Gezi.
Previous day, the intellectuals, that the panel of the judges asked for “their last words,” have communicated “their assessments” as the prosecutors of the court established in the conscience of the people of Turkey.
From this time on, the trial proceedings will go forward as those of the trial established in peoples’ conscience.
Commenting on the developments in the field of law and justice in his address at the iftar reception he had organized for the representatives of the high justice departments, in the same time interval the verdict of Gezi trial was announced, President Erdogan claimed that the trust in justice increased.
Having already decided on the verdict as the prosecutor of Gezi trial, in fact, as its judge for years, it would not be wrong to deduce that he delivered his speech already knowing the verdict of Gezi trial. Therefore, it would not be right to see the verdict of the 13th Heavy Penal Court just as a technical verdict a panel of judges made in Gezi trial. On the contrary, this verdict demonstrates that the one man government does not want to let the participants of Gezi resistance go unpunished,
that it wants, from this time on, to threaten everybody and every section of the people showing disobedience to the government just as Gezi has,
that it would be able to accuse every action, every protest to be “a plot to overthrow the government” just as it has proclaimed as terrorist every power it assessed to be in opposition,
that it would utilise every power it got in its hand, with no regards to their being legal or illegal, in order to win the elections by terrorising the political environment, which it has no more chance of winning under “normal” conditions, any more.
The democracy powers of our country, all the powers fighting against the one man government have to move on accordingly by knowing these realities.
Hediye Levent
Yusuf Karadaş
Yücel Özdemir