The European court of human rights has ordered the immediate release of the prominent Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş from prison in Turkey, finding that his detention goes against “the very core of the concept of a democratic society”.
The grand chamber ruling issued on Tuesday said that Demirtaş, a charismatic figure who could face a sentence of 142 years if convicted in the main trial against him, had had his freedom of expression, liberty and other rights violated.
His detention had “the ulterior purpose of stifling pluralism and limiting freedom of political debate”, sending “a dangerous message to the entire population”, the panel of 17 judges found.
“The court thus concluded that the reasons put forward by the authorities for the applicant’s pre-trial detention had merely been cover for an ulterior political purpose, which was a matter of indisputable gravity for democracy,” the chamber said.
The former leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP) is one of thousands of politicians, academics, judges and civil servants who have been jailed across Turkey in recent years, accused of supporting either the militant Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) or Fethullah Gülen, whom Ankara blames for the 2016 coup attempt.
Demirtaş delivered a searing blow to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party (AKP) in a general election in 2015, when the HDP won enough seats to destroy its parliamentary majority.
He has been jailed since 2016, after Ankara revoked parliamentary immunity for politicians, and is currently serving four years and eight months after being indicted for terrorism-related offences over comments made in a 2013 speech. The 47-year-old faces more than 100 separate charges in total, ranging from being the leader of a terrorist organisation to insulting the president.
The main charge against him is related to his role in organising protests across Turkey’s mainly Kurdish south-east in 2014, which accused Ankara of standing by while Islamic State militants besieged the Kurdish town of Kobani, just over the Syrian border. The protests turned violent and led to the deaths of 37 people.
Demirtaş denies all allegations against him. The ECHR’s ruling said it did not see evidence in decisions on the politician’s detention that linked his actions and the alleged offences.
The HDP called the ECHR’s verdict a “smashing victory on behalf of [all] oppressed politicians in Turkey”, and echoed the call for Demirtaş’s immediate release.
Another chamber of the ECHR previously ruled in 2018 that Demirtaş’s right to a speedy trial had been violated, given the length of his pre-trial detention without a final conviction. The judgment was met with renewed efforts by the Turkish authorities to convict him.The Turkish presidency did not immediately comment on the latest ruling.
In recent months, senior AKP figures have promised judicial reforms, raising hopes for people currently in Turkey’s overcrowded jails, but the president specified that any changes would not affect the case of Demirtaş, whom he called a terrorist with the “blood of thousands of Kurds on his hands”.
Dozens of other HDP politicians and hundreds of party members have also been imprisoned on terrorism-related charges over the last five years and the party has been effectively banned from mainstream media appearances, making it difficult for the progressive leftwing movement to maintain momentum.
Despite winning 53 mayoralties across the country in local elections in 2019, just three HDP mayors remain in office today, with the rest removed from office or jailed and replaced with government-appointed trustees.
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