Osman Kavala was interrogated on the night of 19 February 2020 regarding his re-arrest on the charges of the 15 July coup attempt. Below is the translation of the interrogation report (you can access the original here):
R.T.
ISTANBUL
8TH JUSTICE OF PEACE COURT
INTERROGATION REPORT
INTERROGATION NO: 2020/154
JUDGE: ZAFER DAŞKIN 153128
CLERK: BİROL SOY 144149
The suspect who has been sent along with the investigation letter of 19/02/2020 with no 2017/19 115 of the Terror and Organised Crimes Investigation Bureau of İstanbul, based on the offence of Attempting to Overthrow the Constitutional Order, demanding arrest, has been received and his ID details have been cross-checked.
SUSPECT: MEHMET OSMAN KAVALA, was born in Paris on 02/10/1957, of parents Mehmet and Necla. He is registered in Kocaeli, Darıca, Bağlarbaşı village. He resides at XXXXX. He is married and has no children. He has a postgraduate degree. He is a businessman and declares XX,XXX TL of income. His mobile phone number is XXXX XXX XX XX. ID no XXXXXXXXXXX.
The suspect was read out the documents and attachments, issued by the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor of İstanbul and was explained about the imputed offence. He was reminded his rights stemming from CCP articles 147 and 191/3-c and CCP Article 106/2 individually. He was informed of his obligation to give an accurate answer related to his ID and to notify any change of address and that otherwise he would be sent notifications to the address he had provided. He was informed of his rights to select a defence counsel and that he can benefit from the legal aid of the defence counsel and that the counsel could be present during his interrogation and statement-taking, and in cases where he was not able to select a defence counsel he could be assigned one by the bar Association if he wanted to benefit from the assistance of a counsel. He was also informed that he had the right not to make statements about the imputed offence and that he had the right to ask for a collection of tangible evidence in order to evade suspicion and also put forth issues that will be for his favour.
After the rights of the suspect were explained he noted that he would make his defence statement accompanied by his private defence counsel Attorney Deniz Tolga Aytöre and Attorney İlhan Koyuncu. Then the process of interrogation and defence statements began.
In his defence statement Suspect Mehmet Osman Kavala said; I have been unlawfully detained for around 2years 4 months. As confirmed yesterday by the acquittal decision of the Heavy Penal Court no 30 and as had been explicitly noted previously by the European Court of Human Rights I have been subjected to an extraordinarily dire right violation, and yesterday's arrest decision and the referral letter of the prosecutor you have seen this evening, are an indication that this violation is being sustained. As I had noted in my previous statement, all allegations related to my involvement in the coup attempt of July 15 are groundless.
Defence Council of the Suspect Attorney Deniz Tolga Aytöre was queried; I hereby submit to this dossier the HTS analysis report proving that that unlike it is claimed here in this dossier too, my client had no telephone conversation with Hanrey Barkey (Received Read Included in the Dossier). An ex-officio release decision was issued on 11/10/2019 within the scope of the same offence. We were referred to arrest based on the same offence and within the scope of the same investigation. I hereby submit to your dossier paragraphs 154 and 155 of the ECtHR ruling that arrest of my client as part of this investigation constitutes a violation of his right (Received Read Included in the Dossier). Within the scope of this dossier, the period of 2 years to be spent under pre-trial detention at investigation phase as per CCP has also expired. Pressing charges against my client in connection with Fetö/Pdy organisation as well as coup attempt pf July 15 is nor compatible with the natural flow of life. All evidence particularly imputed against us in Gezi dossier have been obtained unlawfully. They have been issued by judges and prosecutor and public servants who were Fetö/Pdy members, tried and convicted on these charges and are currently fugitives. Therefore claiming that we acted together with these people, members and ideologies that have collected unlawful evidence against us, engaged in conspiracies against us refers to moving away from law and reason. Hence they are totally unacceptable for us. One of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and violations ruled by the Court states that; violations of rights under this particular case and Gezi case constitute a violation of Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the decision is of a political nature and aims to silence civil society organisations by putting them under pressure. Today we have been referred to arrest procedures for a second time within the scope of the same case and the Public Prosecutor who demanded our arrest did not even take the statement of Osman Kavala at the prosecution office, thereby breaching the principle of taking a face-to-face statement of the suspect in the investigation. In addition to being in contravention of the law, this issue also overlaps with the ECtHR judgement handed down for incompliance with Article 18 of the Convention. For this reason, I hereby request, on the basis of the documents submitted by my client, that my client stands trial by being released.
Defence Attorney Lawyer İlkan Koyuncu was questioned: His response was: "2,5 years ago, I was referred to the courthouse, together with my client, from the Anti-terror Section of Istanbul Police Directorate. I was not able to speak face-to-face with a prosecutor. I was brought before the Criminal Peace Judge, under the same investigation number and same imputed offence. The same prosecutor referred us to arrest procedures. We were arrested. My client was detained in prison for two years for violating Article 309. He was ex officio released by the prosecutor. Today's referral documents do not contain a single word of an additional charge. Today, noontime, at AKP's group meeting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has put on the [Judge's] robe and issued an arrest warrant for my client."
The investigation file has been examined.
THE NECESSARY ACTION HAS BEEN CONSIDERED and the following decisions have been taken:
1- The suspect was referred to arrest procedures on charges of committing the offence of Attempting to Undermine the Constitutional Order,
- A scrutiny of the search and seizure warrants within the scope of the investigation file, other law-enforcement reports, digital enquiry documents, photographs and open sources reveal findings that;
- The suspect participated in the coup attempt in connection with Hanrey Jak Barkey and other foreign national individual(s), who are among the instigators of the coup, within the scope of the meeting process that took place at Büyükada Splendid Hotel on 15 – 16 July 2016 in relation to the coup attempt they tried to carry out in our country on 15 July 2016,
- According to analysis of communications again, suspect Mehmet Osman KAVALA and other suspect Hanrey BARKEY met, prior to the coup attempt, in Şişli district first on 27 June 2016 at the Office of Menka Inc. owned by Mehmet Osman KAVALA, and then in Diyarbakır on 30/06/2016 where they met with persons affiliated with PKK terrorist organisation,
- Again given Hanrey BARKEY's contacts with FETÖ/PDY and considering the fact that the suspects' mobile phones transmitted signals coming from the same base stations at the same timeslot, there is strong criminal suspicion in the nature of concrete evidence that suspect Mehmet Osman KAVALA may have participated in the decision-making process of the coup attempt undertaken on 15 July 2016,
- Although an ex officio release decision has been ruled for the suspect on 11/10/2019 within the scope of this investigation, there is risk of flight due to the release decision ruled in the case publicly known as the Gezi Park case due to the gravity and importance of the imputed crime,
- As the imputed crime is one of the offences specified in Article 100 of CCP, it should be considered that the grounds for arrest exist,
- and as judicial control provisions will be inadequate, in consideration of the gravity and importance of the offence that is the subject matter of this investigation, the suspect should be ARRESTED pursuant to Article 100 and subsequent articles of CCP,
2- Necessary arrest warrants should be issued for the suspect,
3- As the suspect has been arrested pursuant to Article 107 of the CCP, a relative or a person designated by him should be informed by the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor immediately,
4- The suspect should be notified (notification has been made) that he has the right to appeal against the arrest warrant to the 9th Criminal Peace Judge of Istanbul, which is the higher court, within seven days starting from today,
5- The investigation file should be returned to the relevant Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor of Istanbul for the necessary action, and an appeal can be lodged with the 9th Criminal Court Judge's Office of Istanbul within seven days through a petition to be submitted to our Judge's Office or by registering his declaration in a report. 19/02/2020
Clerk 144149 Judge 153128
[with e-signature] [with e-signature]
Suspect Defence Attorney