Osman Kavala
(London, August 25, 2026) – The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights today delivered a landmark judgment in the case of Osman Kavala, the human rights defender and civil society leader unlawfully imprisoned in Türkiye since November 2017. The court ruled that Kavala's continued detention is unlawful and found that his rights to fair trial, freedom of expression, and association have been violated. The court also found that his aggravated life sentence amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment and that the Turkish authorities acted in bad faith by keeping him in detention unlawfully. The court concluded that he was convicted for the ulterior purpose of punishing and silencing him, and to prevent his human rights work. The court ordered his release at the earliest possible date and that his conviction be quashed.
Human rights organizations Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists, and the Turkey Litigation Support Project submitted a joint intervention to the court on the core rights issues at stake in the case. Amnesty International declared Osman Kavala and his six codefendants prisoners of conscience in June 2022.
“Today, in its latest ruling, the European Court of Human Rights has comprehensively established that Osman Kavala has been languishing in prison for almost nine years on the basis of a politically motivated trial,” said Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office. “Türkiye has defied two previous binding rulings from the court in his case. This obstruction of justice must end. Türkiye’s authorities, including judicial and prosecutorial, must act to free Osman Kavala immediately and unconditionally.”
In what became known as the “Gezi Park trial,” Kavala was sentenced on April 25, 2022, to life in prison without parole for “attempting to overthrow the government” alon
