INTERNATIONAL
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MIDDLE EAST
TURKEY
The Turkish and German foreign ministries each summoned the other’s ambassador on Friday over the fate of Turkish businessman Osman Kavala, who was sentenced to life in prison by a Turkish court earlier this week. Turkish authorities arrested Kavala over alleged ties to the outlawed Gülen movement and links to the 2013 Gezi Park protest movement back in 2017 and he’d languished in custody for years before finally being tried and acquitted in 2020. Prosecutors nevertheless kept him in custody and have now finally managed to convict him of something. The German ministry summoned Turkey’s ambassador in Berlin on Friday to complain about the sentencing, which several Western countries have criticized on human rights grounds, and the Turkish ministry summoned Germany’s ambassador in Ankara to complain about the Berlin summons.