September 2, 2019
A court in Ankara has ordered the conditional release of a top pro-Kurdish politician. However, Selahattin Demirtas will likely remain in jail after being convicted of spreading “terrorist propaganda.”
A court in Turkey ruled on Monday that top pro-Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas should be released from jail on terrorism-related charges. However, he will remain in prison, his lawyers said, because he is also serving a sentence for a separate crime.
Demirtas has been in pre-trial detention since November 2016, one of many opposition lawmakers, activists, academics and journalists who were arrested in the wake of a failed coup in July of that year.
The Ankara court “ruled unanimously” that the Kurdish Peoples’ Party (HDP) co-chair “should be released immediately,” since his defense had been completed. However, he will remain behind bars because he must also serve a four-year and eight month sentence for “terrorist propaganda.”
Demirtas could face 142 years in prison if found guilty in the main trial, for which he had been in detention for nearly three years.
Seen as major rival to Erdogan
In July, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Demirtas’ conviction on spreading terrorist propaganda should be vacated. The ECHR found that Demirtas had been calling for a peaceful solution to Turkey’s “Kurdish problem,” saying that his statements “could not be regarded as amounting to incitement to engage in violence, armed resistance or rebellion.”
Ankara has long accused the HDP of having ties to the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and several of its major allies.
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https://www.dw.com/en/turkey-court-orders-pro-kurdish-leader-demirtas-released/a-50264002
Turkish court rules to release Demirtaş in one case on eve of ECtHR hearing
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/84624e74-ddcc-478b-8680-2c949c64e81f
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selahattin_Demirta%C5%9F
http://www.kamubulteni.com/son-dakika/selahattin-demirtas-hakkinda-flas-tahliye-karari-h13882.html (TURKCE)
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selahattin_Demirta%C5%9F (FRANCAIS)
https://taz.de/Gerichtsentscheidung-in-der-Tuerkei/!5623119/ (DEUTSCH)
TURQUIE- 2 septembre 2019
Lors de la 11ème audience du procès de Selahattin Demirtaş, Coprésident du HDP , a été remis en liberté lors da 11ème audience de son procès à Ankara, dans le complexe pénitentiaire de Sincan. Mais ilne sortira pas de prison pour autant car il purge une condamnation à 4 ans et 8 mois de prison, prononcée en 2018.
L’audience s’est déroulée en l’absence de Demirtaş et de ses avocats, qui ont annoncé qu’ils se préparaient pour l’audience devant la Grande Chambre de la Cour européenne des Droits de l’Homme prévue le 18 septembre prochain. (Voir Ces avocats, 2019, p. 128)
(L’Observatoire des Avocats Facebook, 07/09/19)
IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers 