- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
- Thousands march in London in support of Palestinians, 1 year after Oct 7
- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
- Pogba's drug ban cut to 18 months from four years
Jailed Turkish activist's marathon trial nears verdict
One of Turkey's most famous prisoners will appear before court Friday for what could be his final hearing in a case that has come to define Ankara's uneasy ties with the West.
Paris-born activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala was a relative unknown when he was detained on his arrival at Istanbul's airport from a trip to a cultural centre in the Turkish city of Gaziantep in October 2017.
But his continued imprisonment without a conviction has turned the 64-year-old into a hero for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's opponents -- and a focus of Western worries about the Turkish leader's sweeping crackdown on dissent.
Kavala now stands accused of financing a wave of 2013 anti-government protests and playing a role in a failed but bloody coup attempt against Erdogan in 2016.
He was acquitted of the first charge in February 2020.
But police detained him before the bearded intellectual had a chance to return home and then charged him with the coup plot.
Kavala is now accused of both charges in a trial that looks back on some of the most tumultuous years of Erdogan's dominant 20-year rule.
Kavala's claims of innocence have been warmly supported by Western governments and flatly rejected by the Turkish president.
Erdogan has branded Kavala as a communist agent of the Hungarian-born US philanthropist George Soros who is using foreign money to try and topple the state.
"We can never be together with people like Kavala," Erdogan declared in 2020.
But his treatment has prompted the Council of Europe to launch rare disciplinary proceedings against Turkey that could ultimately see Ankara's membership suspended in the continent's main human rights organisation.
- 'Severe injustice' -
Prosecutors demanded last month that Kavala be found guilty of "attempting to overthrow" Erdogan's government.
The harshest verdict and sentence would see Kavala jailed for life without the possibility of parole.
Kavala's lawyers told AFP that they expected him to attend Friday's hearing by a video link from his prison in Silivri -- about 60 kilometres (40 miles) west of Istanbul -- and for the final session to stretch into Monday.
He is being tried together with 16 other defendants implicated in the 2013 protests. Nine out of them are currently living abroad.
Human rights advocates say Kavala's release would send signals abroad that Turkey's justice system is free from Erdogan's pressure.
"Osman Kavala is one of the highest-profile detainees of Turkey. But this attention did not save him from suffering severe injustice at the hands of the judicial system," Amnesty International's Turkey researcher Guney Yildiz told AFP.
"His unconditional release may mark a turning point in de-politicisation of judicial prosecutions in Turkey. That's why the result of the emblematic case is quite serious".
London-based human rights organisation ARTICLE 19 also urged Turkey to end the "judicial harassment" of Kavala and his co-defendants.
But Erdogan has seethed at the international publicity and condemnation generated by the case.
The tensions nearly spilled over into an all-out diplomatic war that threatened to break out when the United States and nine other Western embassies issued a joint letter of support for Kavala last October.
Local media reports said Erdogan's advisers managed to convince him to walk back on his threat to expel the 10 countries' ambassadors after being briefed on the harm this might do to Turkey's investment climate.
X.Brito--PC