Image copyright AFP A Turkish court has acquitted nine people who were put on trial over the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul in 2013.
In a surprise ruling on Tuesday, the judge said there was insufficient evidence against the group, who were accused of trying to overthrow the government.
The case had caused outrage among human rights groups and Western countries.
Osman Kavala, a prominent businessman and human rights activist, spent more than two years in pre-trial detention.
The judge ordered his immediate release.
Cheers could be heard in the courtroom as the verdict was read out.
In December, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Mr Kavala had been arbitrarily detained and called for him to be freed immediately.
The 2013 protests initially broke out over plans to redevelop Istanbul’s Gezi Park but transformed into wider unrest against then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which spread to other parts of the country.
A number of people were killed and thousands of others injured.
Separately on Wednesday, a verdict is expected in the case of 11 human rights activists in Turkey, including former leading members of Amnesty International’s operations there.
The group was arrested in 2017 on terrorism charges, which Amnesty International has dismissed as “absurd”.
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