Fresh detention warrant for Osman Kavala, hours after acquittal

ISTANBUL

Istanbul prosecutors have issued a new detention warrant for businessman Osman Kavala, shortly after he was acquitted on terrorism charges in a trial pertaining to the 2013 Gezi Park protests.

Police detained Kavala immediately after his release from a sprawling prison in Silivri, west of Istanbul, and took him to police headquarters after routine health checks, state-owned Anadolu news agency said.

During a 24-hour detention period, Kavala was expected to be sent to the prosecutor’s office at the main court in Istanbul and prosecutors will then rule on whether to formally arrest him and send him back to prison.

In the meantime, Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, said the "allegedly new charges brought against Osman Kavala have no credibility and for me, this arrest amounts to ill-treatment."

Earlier on Feb. 18, Kavala was acquitted from criminal charges related to the 2013 Gezi Park protests.

He was among the nine others acquitted in the case.

In the summer of 2013, relatively small 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.