26/04/2022 (Agence Europe) – On Monday, 25 April, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, Nacho Sánchez Amor (S&D, Spain), and the chair of the EU-Turkey Parliamentary Delegation, Sergey Lagodinsky (Greens/EFA, Germany), criticised the aggravated life sentence pronounced against Turkish businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala for allegedly trying to overthrow the government in 2016. “This decision reconfirms the authoritarian character of the current system, and it clearly shows the lack of willingness to make any kind of real reforms in the field of fundamental rights and rule of law. In this view, there is little to [no] EU perspective for the current Turkey”, they stated in a press release. In their opinion, a “shocking example” [of this] is the fact that one of the judges on the tribunal had been a candidate for the ruling party during the parliamentary elections. (MB)