A Turkish court sentences activist Osman Kavala to life in prison

OVER THE course of the war in Ukraine, Turkey’s government has earned some goodwill in the West by publicly opposing Russia’s invasion and by providing Ukraine with armed drones. On April 25th a lot of that goodwill went up in smoke, when a court in Istanbul handed Osman Kavala, one of Turkey's most respected civil-society activists, a life sentence for “attempting to overthrow” the country’s government during protests almost a decade ago. Seven other defendants, accused of aiding Mr Kavala, were sentenced to 18 years each.Two of those people, Can Atalay, a lawyer, and Mucella Yapici, an architect, stood inside the courtroom facing a crowd of shocked onlookers, some of them wiping away tears, moments after hearing the verdict. “They will now take us to Silivri,” Mr Atalay shouted, referring to a notorious prison on the outskirts of Istanbul. “But know that we will not bow to tyranny.” In his closing statement, Mr Kavala, speaking by video link, called the case a “judicial assassination”.