Prosecutors indict ex-HDP Co-Chair Demirtaş, others over 2014 incidents

ANKARA

Turkish prosecutors have prepared an indictment against 108 people, including former Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş, in connection with the 2014 incidents.

The prosecutors’ office sought punishment for the 108 suspects on various charges, including 37 cases of homicide and disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Dec. 30.

The Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the capital Ankara said it concluded an indictment against the suspects, 27 of whom were in custody while six have been released on bail and 75 others were being actively sought by authorities.

Currently imprisoned on terror-related charges, former HDP co-leader Yüksekdağ is also among the suspects on trial.

The indictment also charges the suspects with burning the Turkish flag and opposing a law protecting Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

In early October, a Turkish court ordered the pre-trial detention of 17 people, including senior HDP members, in connection with the events of 2014 which sparked by the seizure of the Syrian town of Kobane by Islamic State fighters and turned violent across Turkey after the YPG group in the town accused the Turkish government of being inactive against the ISIL attacks.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said on late Dec. 22 that the rights of Demirtaş had been violated under five different categories, including freedom of expression and liberty. It also stressed that Demirtaş’s pretrial detention since November 2016 had sent a dangerous message to the entire population.

Demirtaş, who is charged with terrorism-related offenses, faces a sentence of up to 142 years in prison if convicted of being the leader of a terrorist organization over his actions during protests in 2014.