Despite a Constitutional Court ruling that his right to a fair trial had been violated, the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court rejected on Nov. 6 a retrial for Tayfun Kahraman, an urban planner imprisoned in the Gezi Park case.
Kahraman, who has been serving an 18-year sentence since April 25, 2022, suffers from multiple sclerosis, and remains in prison. The Constitutional Court sent its decision to the local court for action, but the Istanbul panel rejected it, arguing that the top court had overstepped its authority and cannot function as a “super court of appeal.”
The refusal is seen as a fresh challenge to the Constitutional Court’s authority, mirroring a pattern seen in other politically sensitive cases. The Istanbul court echoed arguments made in the case of Can Atalay, a jailed lawmaker stripped of his parliamentary seat, whose release order was similarly ignored by an appeals court that claimed issues of evidence interpretation fall under lower courts’ jurisdiction.
In Kahraman’s case, the Constitutional Court ruled that illegal wiretaps were used as evidence, violating his rights to defense and a fair trial. The local court disputed this, maintaining the recordings were legally obtained and accessible to the defense.
