Turkey: Main opposition slams arrest of businessman

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s arrest of a businessman last week over accusations he helped finance the 2016 defeated coup was criticized by Turkey’s main opposition party on Tuesday.

"Is this justice, humanity, or fairness? This is no political issue but a humanitarian, ethical issue of conscience," Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), told his party's parliamentary group.

Nor is there any evidence showing that businessman Osman Kavala helped fund the 2013 Gezi Park protests, Kilicdaroglu said.

"What conscience can accept this? What man who has conscience and wisdom can accept a man being unjustly jailed?" he asked.

Kavala, among nine defendants acquitted last Tuesday of criminal charges related to the 2013 Gezi protests, was re-arrested later that day after being released from Silivri Prison in Istanbul.

Judicial procedures involving Kavala were completed at Istanbul police headquarters following his release, after which he was sent to appear before the court.

He was re-arrested on charge of "attempting to overthrow the constitutional order" but denied all claims of his support for the 2016 defeated coup by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

A council of judges and prosecutors has launched an investigation into the members of the high criminal court who acquitted the nine defendants in the Gezi Park case.

In the summer of 2013, a small number of demonstrations in Istanbul’s Gezi Park grew into a nationwide wave of protests against the government that left eight protesters and a police officer dead.

The government later said the protests were orchestrated by FETO members who had infiltrated the police and courts.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Turkey accuses FETO of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.