Turkey – Council of Europe’s Václav Havel Prize awarded to Osman Kavala (9 October 2023)

France welcomes the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s awarding of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize to Mr Osman Kavala, a Turkish civil society figure.

France deplores the Turkish Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Mr Kavala’s life-imprisonment sentence on 28 September. It reiterates its call for the immediate release of Mr Kavala, held for nearly six years in violation of Turkey’s international obligations, and for all the charges against him to be dropped, in accordance with the European Court of Human Rights’ judgments of 10 December 2019 and 11 July 2022.