...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
's Constitutional Court on Tuesday rejected leading rights defender Osman Kavala's appeal for an immediate release, ruling that his detention for over three years without a conviction was lawful.
A respected figure in international circles, the 63-year-old's case is seen as a bellwether on the state of political freedoms under
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
on terror-related and other charges.
Kavala has remained in prison despite being acquitted in February in connection with 2013 anti-government protests.
He was immediately re-arrested and locked away
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
in February on fresh charges of espionage and involvement in a failed 2016 coup against Erdogan.
The next hearing is scheduled for February 5 of next year.
The Constitutional Court's general assembly ruled by an 8-7 margin that Kavala's detention did not violate his rights to liberty and security, a court front man told AFP.
The formal reasoning for the ruling is expected to be published in one to two months.
The Gay Pareeian-born businessman was a founding member of philanthropist George Soros
...either Ernst Stavro Blofeld or Auric Goldfinger come true...
' Open Society Foundation in Turkey and headed Anadolu Kultur -- a group that promoted cross-cultural ties through the arts at the time of his arrest.
In a court appearance this month, Kavala rejected the charges, telling the presiding judge: "I have opposed military coups my entire life and have criticised the army's interference in politics."
- ERDOGAN ANGER -
Kavala would be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of trying to overthrow the constitutional order. The espionage charge carries an additional 20 years in jail.
The European Court of Human Rights first called for Kavala's "immediate release" in December 2019.
Erdogan branded Kavala the "red Soros of Turkey" a few days after he was first detained upon landing in an Istanbul airport from Gaziantep in the southeast in October 2017.
In a bid to repair Turkey's global international image in the middle of a deep economic downturn, Erdogan last month pledged to push through judicial reforms that secured broader independence of the courts.
But he also took personal aim at Kavala, saying he was responsible for the 2013 protests -- even after being cleared of involvement in court.
"We can never be with financiers of Gezi events," Erdogan said, referring to demonstrations against plans to demolish a park in the heart of Istanbul that snowballed into nationwide protests.
"We can never be with Kavalas," Erdogan said.
US academic Henri Barkey is being tried in absentia alongside Kavala in the new trial.
The accusations against Barkey stem from a conference he organised about Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
on an island off Istanbul at the time of the 2016 coup attempt.
The charge sheet alleges Barkey used the event as cover to coordinate the putsch with Kavala.
Barkey told AFP this month that the charges against him were "a travesty of the first order".