Prosecutor who penned 2nd Kavala indictment promoted as deputy justice minister
Osman Kavala remains behind bars as one of Turkey's most high-profile political prisoners, while President Erdoğan appointed the prosecutor who prepared Kavala's indictment to the post of Deputy Justice Minister. The appointment came within seven days of the indictment's preparation, and removed the prior appointee by presidential decree.
Duvar English
Former Istanbul Deputy Public Prosecutor Hasan Yılmaz, who prepared the second indictment against businessman, activist, and political prisoner Osman Kavala, was appointed Deputy Justice Minister within seven days of penning the document.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan removed former Deputy Justice Minister Cengiz Öner from his post and replaced him with Yılmaz, author of the current indictment against Kavala, who has been behind bars for three years.
Kavala was initially accused of being one of the “managers and organizers” of the 2013 Gezi Park protests, which took place in Istanbul’s Taksim district following harsh a government response to a group of protesters trying to prevent the cutting down of trees for a large development project planned by the government.
Just hours after being acquitted in the Gezi Park case earlier this year, Kavala was re-arrested late on Feb. 19 over charges related to the failed 2016 military coup.
The indictment prepared by Yılmaz accuses Kavala of espionage and trying overthrow the constitutional order.
Yılmaz was among the prosecutors presiding over the case against a number of journalists from the Cumhuriyet newspaper that was also widely criticized as a political trial, and he has detained 146 lawyers during his term as an Istanbul prosecutor.