Mr. Kavala, a philanthropist and civic activist, was arrested in October 2017 and accused of attempting to overthrow the government in connection with the Gezi Park protests of 2013 and the failed coup of July 2016. Mr. Erdogan has long espoused rather bizarre conspiracy theories about the opposition to his rule, often seeing the hidden hand of financier George Soros and exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen. In keeping with the dictator’s handbook, Mr. Erdogan has been unable to see that the opposition to him is legitimate and enduring. He has sunk further and further into heavy-handed strongman tactics, with wholesale jailing of civil society activists, judges and journalists, among others.

The harsh sentence for Mr. Kavala stands out because of Mr. Erdogan’s personal animosity toward him and the twisted weaponization of the courts. As The Post’s Kareem Fahim noted, Human Rights Watch concluded that Turkey was “using domestic court decisions to prolong Kavala’s detention and extend the life of baseless prosecutions. The courts have issued sham release orders, initiated multiple criminal proceedings against Kavala on the same facts, and separated and rejoined case files accusing him of bogus offenses.” Mr. Kavala, 64, founded Anadolu Kultur, an organization that promotes diversity, culture and human rights. In the Turkish indictments, he was accused of organizing and financing the 2013 protests against a government plan to destroy green space in the park, which blossomed into a nationwide protest movement against Mr. Erdogan’s authoritarianism. Mr. Kavala also was accused of colluding with Mr. Soros to incite the protests, which he and Mr. Soros have denied.