A retrial for Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala and 15 others accused of organizing the 2013 Gezi Park protests opened on Friday, in a case that human rights organizations say is emblematic of Turkey’s crackdown on civil society.
Turkish prosecutors allege that Kavala coordinated and financed the nationwide unrest that erupted in central Istanbul, sparked by a heavy-handed police response to environmentalists protesting the park’s planned demolition. He was arrested in November 2017.
