François Alfonsi stands for Osman Kavala and the people of Kurdistan
Last week the Turkish Courts sentenced activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala to life in prison. Mr Kavala, born in Paris, was first accused of orchestrating and financing nationwide anti-government protests that erupted in 2013 but he was exonerated, in 2016 he was accused of being part of the attempted coup, in court he was sentenced for both allegations.
Earlier this year, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which monitors the implementation of European Court of Human Rights rulings, referred Turkey back to the Court due to the Turkish government’s refusal to release Osman Kavala following the sentence of immediate release from the ECoHR’s.
Francois Alfonsi EFA MEP said:
“Mr. Kavala is a personality committed to democracy and human rights. By ignoring the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights which had asked for his release, despite the total absence of charges, this sentence shows that Turkey has reached a serious point of dictatorial drift.”
“The number of political prisoners in Turkey is in the thousands. Parliamentarians, including many Kurds, and the mayors of many Kurdish cities are persecuted, imprisoned and stripped of their democratic mandates.”
“Mr. Erdoğan is like Vladimir Putin! “
“Vladimir Putin said "All Ukrainians are Nazis". "
All Kurds are terrorists" echoes him Mr. Erdoğan. It is the same speech, it is the same drift, and it is the same danger for Europe.”
“The release of Mr. Kavala must be obtained with the full weight of the EU. We must decide on economic and diplomatic sanctions against this dictatorship.”
