Page 6 - aruba-today-20220426

A6 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 26 april 2022
Turkish court gives philanthropist Kavala life in prison

By SUZAN FRASER ing a mall in an Istanbul taken pastries and face
Associated Press park into wider demonstra- masks to the protesters. He
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A tions against the govern- said allegations that he di-
Turkish court on Monday ment of then-Prime Minister rected the protests are "not
sentenced prominent Turk- Recep Tayyip Erdogan. plausible."
ish civil rights activist and Ozgur Ozel, an opposition "The fact that I spent 4.5
philanthropist Osman Ka- legislator whose party fre- years of my life in prison is
vala to life in prison without quently questions the in- an irreparable loss for me.
parole, finding him guilty of dependence of Turkey's My only consolation is the
attempting to overthrow courts, accused the judi- possibility that my experi-
the government in con- ciary of allegedly meeting ence will contribute to a
nection with the 2013 mass the wishes of Erdogan, who better understanding of
anti-government protests. is now president. the grave problems of the
The court in Istanbul also "Justice did not prevail here judiciary," Kavala told the
sentenced seven other today — the will of the per- court by videoconference
defendants, including son who rules this country from Silivri.
71-year-old architect Mu- was carried out," he told Kavala is the founder of a
cella Yapici, to 18 years in reporters outside the court- nonprofit organization, An-
prison each for "aiding" the house. adolu Kultur, which focuses
attempt. It ordered that Ozel also denounced the on cultural and artistic proj-
the activists, who were not trial as an attempt by Erdo- ects promoting peace and
in custody, be immediately gan to "demonize the pro- dialogue.
arrested, the state-run An- tests that were extremely Kavala was initially acquit-
adolu Agency reported. peaceful and were staged ted in February 2020 of
The verdict, which is likely out of environmental con- charges that connected
to harm Turkey's ties with cerns." him with the 2013 Gezi
Western nations, comes as Asked for his final words Park protests. As support-
Europe's top human rights Osman Kavala, a Turkish philanthropist businessman and hu- in court on Monday, Ka- ers awaited his release,
body, the Council of Eu- man rights defender poses for a photo in Istanbul, Turkey, April vala said: "The aggravated Kavala was rearrested on
rope, launched infringe- 29, 2015. life sentence demanded new charges linking him
ment procedures against Associated Press against me is an assas- to Turkey's 2016 coup at-
Turkey for refusing to abide sination that cannot be tempt. The acquittal was
by a ruling by the Europe- 2017, accused of financing that the case is politically explained through legal later overturned and the
an Court of Human Rights, the protests. He and other motivated. reasons," according to the case was merged with
which called for Kavala's defendants denied all the Supporters of Kavala and Media and Law Studies As- that relating to the coup
release on grounds that his accusations and are ex- the seven other defendants sociation group which has attempt, which the Turkish
rights had been violated. pected to appeal the ver- immediately protested the been monitoring the trial. government blames on the
Kavala, 64, has been jailed dicts. verdicts Monday, shouting In his defense statements network of U.S.-based Mus-
in Silivri prison, on the out- Human rights groups say slogans in support of the Friday, Kavala rejected the lim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
skirts of Istanbul, since he Kavala was prosecuted 2013 protests that morphed accusations once again, Gulen denies any links to
was detained Oct. 18, with flimsy evidence and from a dispute over build- insisting that he had merely the attempted coup.q

Egypt: Ruins of ancient temple for Zeus unearthed in Sinai

uities authorities said Mon- times, he said. sites, said inscriptions found
day. Waziri said the ruins were in the area show that Ro-
The Tourism and Antiqui- found between the Pelu- man Emperor Hadrian (117-
ties Ministry said in a state- sium Fort and a memo- 138) renovated the temple.
ment the temple ruins were rial church at the site. Ar- He said experts will study
found in the Tell el-Farma chaeologists found a set the unearthed blocks and
archaeological site in of granite blocks probably do a photogrammetry sur-
northwestern Sinai. used to build a staircase vey to help determine the
Tell el-Farma, also known for worshipers to reach the architectural design of the
by its ancient name Pelusi- temple. temple.
um, dates back to the late Excavations at the area The temple ruins are the lat-
Pharaonic period and was date back to early 1900 est in a series of ancient dis-
also used during Greco-Ro- when French Egyptolo- coveries Egypt has touted
man and Byzantine times. gist Jean Clédat found in the past couple of years
There are also remains dat- ancient Greek inscriptions in the hope of attracting
ing to the Christian and that showed the existence more tourists.
early Islamic periods. of the Zeus-Kasios temple The tourism industry has
Mostafa Waziri, secretary- but he didn't unearth it, ac- been reeling from the po-
This undated photo provided by the Egyptian Tourism and An- general of Egypt's Supreme cording to the ministry. litical turmoil following the
tiquities Ministry on Monday, April 25, 2022, shows archeologists Council of Antiquities, said Zeus-Kasios is a conflation 2011 popular uprising that
working in the ruins of a temple for Zeus-Kasios, the ancient
Greek god, at the Tell el-Farma archaeological site in the north- archaeologists excavated of Zeus, the God of the toppled longtime autocrat
western corner of the Sinai Peninsula. the temple ruins through its sky in ancient Greek my- Hosni Mubarak. The sec-
Associated Press entrance gate, where two thology, and Mount Kasios tor was also dealt further
huge fallen granite col- in Syria, where Zeus once blows by the coronavirus
By SAMY MAGDY the ruins of a temple for the umns were visible. The gate worshipped. pandemic and most re-
CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian ancient Greek god Zeus in was destroyed in a power- Hisham Hussein, the direc- cently Russia's invasion of
archaeologists unearthed the Sinai Peninsula, antiq- ful earthquake in ancient tor of Sinai archaeological Ukraine.q