Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said on Thursday that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) politicized a court ruling against Osman Kavala, the suspect sentenced to life by Turkish courts for his role in the notorious 2013 Gezi Park riots.
"Unfortunately, the European Court of Human Rights is discussing the issue outside the legal framework,” Tunç told reporters.
The minister's remarks come hours after the European Parliament’s Türkiye rapporteur Nacho Sanchez Amor visited Kavala at his high-security prison cell in Istanbul.
Kavala was first arrested on criminal charges related to the 2013 Gezi events, a small number of demonstrations in Istanbul that later transformed into nationwide protests that left eight protesters and a police officer dead. The businessperson was later remanded in custody by an Istanbul court as part of a probe into the 2016 defeated coup attempt, with prosecutors accusing him of spying.
In September, Türkiye’s Supreme Court of Appeals confirmed Kavala's life sentence. Tunç on Thursday called the largely peaceful Gezi protests a violent "uprising."
