ISTANBUL, Feb 11 (Reuters) – A Turkish court sentenced well-known talent manager Ayse Barim to 12 years and six months in prison on Wednesday on the charge of aiding an attempt to overthrow the government, Demiroren news agency reported.
Barim was arrested last year as part of an investigation connected to the “Gezi Park” nationwide protests in 2013. Barim was later released due to her health issues.
Barim denied the charges and said she did not coordinate actors she worked with or request them to support the protests, as prosecutors alleged, according to earlier court documents and media reports.
Barim, who is undergoing medical treatment, will remain free for now pending any appeal. But the court ruled she would continue to be subject to a judicial control measure banning her from travelling abroad, Demiroren also reported.
In 2013, initially small demonstrations against plans to build a shopping mall in Gezi Park, in Istanbul’s central Taksim Square, swelled into hundreds of thousands of people protesting against the government nationwide in one of the biggest popular challenges to President Tayyip Erdogan’s rule.
In the harsh crackdown that followed, human rights groups say 11 people were killed and more than 8,000 injured, and more than 3,000 were arrested.
Erdogan’s government said the crackdown was warranted given threats to the state, and he has called the protesters “looters” who were partly funded from abroad, a charge denied by defendants and civil society groups.
(Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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