{"id":4915,"date":"2020-04-18T11:51:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-18T08:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/?p=4915"},"modified":"2022-04-21T17:08:27","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T14:08:27","slug":"joint-statement-on-the-900th-day-of-osman-kavalas-detention-we-repeat-free-all-the-rights-defenders-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/2020\/04\/18\/joint-statement-on-the-900th-day-of-osman-kavalas-detention-we-repeat-free-all-the-rights-defenders-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Joint Statement: On the 900th day of Osman Kavala\u2019s Detention, We Repeat: Free All the Rights Defenders Now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On the 900th<\/sup> day of Osman Kavala\u2019s Detention, We Repeat: Free All the Rights Defenders Now<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

18 April 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 14 April 2020, the Minister of\nJustice of the Republic of Turkey stated that there are overall 17 confirmed coronavirus\ncases among the prisoners in 5 prisons in Turkey, and 3 of these cases resulted\nin death. This statement was an admission by the authorities of the presence of\ncoronavirus inside the prisons. Current capacity issues prevent effective\nsocial distancing in prison, which is fundamental to halting the spread of the\nvirus.  Moreover, the hygienic measures\nare inadequate in prisons and certain fundamental rights, such as the right to\nnutrition and the right to health, are constantly violated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numerous rights defenders, who exercise\ntheir essential rights as the right to freedom of expression and freedom of association,\nhave been left unprotected against the coronavirus in prisons as a result of\nthe arrest warrants in pursuit of the unfair investigations and trials. While\ntheir various rights have already been violated, now their right to life is\nunder serious threat due to the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that three prisoners have\nalready died of the virus confirms that this risk to life is real, and that\ndetention practices amount to violations that can cause irreparable harm. Such\npractices fly in the face of the Constitution and international treaties which\nenjoin the state to protect the rights to life and health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Osman Kavala has been detained since November 2017, and on 10\nDecember 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Kavala\u2019s right to\nliberty and security were violated and called for his immediate release. Kavala,\nwho was rearrested right after he was acquitted and released on 18 February 2020,\nwas arrested once again on 9 March 2020, making this his third arrest within the\n900 days he spent behind bars. There are no convictions against Osman Kavala\nand there is still no indictment for his latest arrest, which is also the case for\nmany other rights defenders who have been kept behind bars despite the\npresumption of innocence principle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detention practice, which constitutes\nan exceptional \u201cpreventive measure\u201d in the Criminal Procedure Code, puts rights\ndefenders\u2019 right to life in jeopardy due to the current pandemic. Therefore, it\nis necessary to promulgate the legal mechanisms that will allow the release of\nrights defenders who have been given criminal sentences. Courts that have been\nimplementing detention practice as a \u2018preventive measure\u2019 during investigation\nand prosecution should issue decisions for immediate release to protect and\nsecure the right to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\nthe 900th<\/sup> day of the detention of Osman Kavala, who is in a higher\nrisk group due to his age and being kept behind bars on unfounded charges, we\ndemand his immediate release, and the freeing of all the other rights defenders\nso their right to life will not be violated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity\nNetwork for Human Rights Defenders<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amnesty\nInternational Turkey, Association for Monitoring Equal Rights<\/strong>,\nCitizens\u2019 Assembly Turkey, Civic Space Studies Association, <\/strong>Civil\nRights Defenders, Foundation for\nSociety and Legal Studies, <\/strong>Human\nRights Association \u0130stanbul Branch, Human Rights Agenda Association,<\/strong> Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, Initiative for Freedom of Expression,<\/strong> Kaos GL, Life Memory\nFreedom Association, <\/strong>Media and Law Studies Association, SPoD LGBTI+,<\/strong> Punto24 Association for Independent Journalism, Research Institute on Turkey<\/strong>, The Rights Initiative Association, Truth Justice Memory Center, <\/strong>Turkish-German Forum of Culture<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporting\nInstitutions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Association for\nUniversity Professors, Citizen\u2019s Initiative,<\/strong> Dialogue Group,<\/strong> Unity\nfor Democracy,<\/strong> Platform of Eastern and Southeastern Associations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity\nNetwork for Human Rights Defenders \u2013 Turkey is a network of human rights\norganisations which insists that defending human rights is a universal right.\nThe Network is committed to strengthen solidarity and communication among its\nmembers and to challenge all forms of repression and harassment against human\nrights defenders<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 900th day of Osman Kavala\u2019s Detention, We Repeat: Free All the Rights Defenders Now 18 April 2020 On 14 April 2020, the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Turkey stated that there are overall 17 confirmed coronavirus cases among the prisoners in 5 prisons in Turkey, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4917,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4915\/revisions\/4917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}