Amal Clooney joins Europe's legal battle to free Turkey's Osman Kavala

The Clooney Foundation for Justice, co-founded by international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney along with her husband, the actor George Clooney, has intervened in the case of jailed Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala. According to German state broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, which reported the news on Friday, the Clooney Foundation has, along with several other rights organizations including Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists, been granted the status of third-party intervener in a new case. The new case lodged by his lawyers with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg is aimed at securing his freedom. 

The Strasbourg-based court has accepted the request for their intervention in the proceedings.

Kavala’s numerous friends and admirers across the globe hope that the Clooneys’ involvement will draw greater attention to the case and shame Turkey into freeing the 66-year-old who was, prior to his imprisonment, a leading patron of the arts and the environment. He also advocated and supported conflict resolution processes between Turks and Kurds, as well as Turks and Armenians.

“Kavala’s continued detention constitutes a grave violation of his constitutional rights and of the rule of law. It is an overtly political case with no legal justification. As such, the intervention of the Clooney Foundation will likely revive and draw further international scrutiny of Kavala’s case and will at the very least shame Turkey further in the court of international opinion,” Erdal Dogan, an Istanbul-based human rights lawyer, told Al-Monitor.