The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, an annual prize given by the Council of Europe in honour of those defending human rights, has been awarded to imprisoned Turkish philanthropist and activist Osman Kavala.  

A patron of the arts in his native Turkey, Kavala has been imprisoned since 2017. Authorities alleged he was linked to the 2013 Gezi Park protests – small demonstrations initially about the proposed construction of a shopping mall that quickly escalated into nationwide protest the government.  

Kavala has been described as “the red Soros of Turkey” by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who accused the philanthropist of colluding with George Soros in a bid to topple him in 2013. 

Kavala has now spent more than five years in jail as a result of harsh crackdown’s by Erdoğan, having received a whole life sentence. 

The philanthropist converted a former tobacco warehouse as a refuge for critical voices in Istanbul since 2008.  

In a letter written from prison, read out by his wife Ayşe Kavala, who received the award in his name, Kavala dedicated the Prize to his “fellow citizens unlawfully kept in prison”.  

It is reported that he quoted Václav Havel, the first president of Czechia (formerly Czech Republic) in a letter to his wife Olga from prison in 1980: “The most important thing of all is not to lose hope. This does not mean closing one’s eyes to the horrors of the world. In fact, only those who have not lost faith and hope can see the horrors of the world with genuine clarity.” 

The award ceremony took place on 9 October on the opening day of the autumn plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg. 

 Shafi Musaddique is a news editor at Alliance magazine.