Turkey lashes out at US over Osman Kavala case remarks

ANKARA

Turkey has criticized the United States for issuing calls to end the imprisonment of businessmen Osman Kavala who has been behind bars since 2017, describing Washington’s move as a violation of the principle of rule of law.

“The U.S. State Department’s call for giving an end to Osman Kavala’s imprisonment is in discordance with the principle of rule of law. There is an ongoing law case about Osman Kavala. Everybody has to respect the ongoing court case,” Hami Aksoy, the spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry, said in a written statement on July 27.

Aksoy’s statement came as a reaction to a written statement by the U.S. State Department which called upon “Turkey to comply with its own commitment to justice and rule of law and to release Osman Kavala from detention, while pursuing a just, transparent, and speedy resolution to his case.” It also recalled Kavala has spent 1,000 days in detention without being convicted of any crime.

It’s inconsistent for a country like the U.S. to interfere in a judicial process in Turkey although it has long been dragging its feet when it comes to meeting Turkey’s request of extradition of Fethullah Gülen, the leader of FETÖ, and keeping former manager of Halkbank, Hakan Atilla, behind bars for months on a groundless case, Aksoy stated.

“Turkey is a state of rule of law. Nobody and no country can give orders to the Turkish courts over legal processes,” he said.