Turkey’s Constitutional Court has ruled that Tayfun Kahraman, a city planner sentenced to 18 years in prison over his alleged role in the 2013 Gezi Park protests, was denied his right to a fair trial, the Bianet news website reported.
The court found that Kahraman’s right to a fair trial, protected under Article 36 of the Turkish Constitution, had been violated. The ruling, issued by a majority vote of the judges, includes an order for a new trial. According to the report, Kahraman will be retried under the Gezi case.
Kahraman, who has been behind bars for more than three years, was among several civil society figures convicted in 2022 in a trial that drew widespread condemnation from rights organizations and international observers. The group was found guilty of attempting to overthrow the government for their alleged roles in organizing anti-government protests in the summer of 2013.
In an earlier interview with Bianet, Kahraman expressed hope that the Constitutional Court would intervene. “I believe the court will correct this injustice,” he said.
Meriç Demir Kahraman, Tayfun Kahraman’s wife, expressed cautious relief following the Constitutional Court’s decision ordering a retrial.
In a message posted on X on Thursday, she said the news came just after visiting her husband for the 171st time since his imprisonment.
“We’ve long waited for justice, and while it has come late, we are grateful the Constitutional Court recognized the violation,” she wrote. “Now, we’re calmly awaiting the next steps in the legal process.”
The Gezi Park protests began as a small environmental sit-in in central İstanbul opposing an urban development plan but quickly escalated into nationwide demonstrations against then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The protests posed one of the most serious challenges to Erdoğan’s rule and were met with a heavy-handed crackdown. Erdoğan later described the protests as a coup attempt.
In September 2023, Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of several defendants in the case, including human rights lawyer and former opposition MP Can Atalay, journalist and producer Çiğdem Mater, filmmaker Mine Özerden and businessman and civil society figure Osman Kavala, in addition to Kahraman.
The European Court of Human Rights had previously called for the immediate release of Kavala, citing concerns over the political nature of the charges and lack of credible evidence.
Kavala has been imprisoned since November 2017 and faced a range of charges, including espionage, funding the protests and even involvement in a failed coup in 2016.
The Constitutional Court’s ruling is expected to spark renewed calls for a retrial in other Gezi-related cases.