First hearing into jailed HDP co-chair Demirtaş’s case on Dec 7
DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency
The Ankara 19th Criminal Court has set Dec. 7 as the date for the first hearing into the case of the jailed Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş.
Demirtaş will thus appear for the first time before the court 13 months and 3 days after he was jailed on Nov. 4, 2016 in the northwestern province of Edirne, charged with “establishing and leading a terrorist organization” and “making terrorist propaganda.”
He was initially arrested as part of an investigation launched by the chief public prosecutor’s office in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, but later the Ankara 19th Criminal Court took over his case over security concerns. Since then, the jailed HDP co-leader’s file could not be processed due to a disagreement between the Ankara 19th Criminal Court and the Ankara 2nd Criminal Court, leaving him waiting in pre-trial detention for months.
The dispute arose when the Ankara 19th Criminal Court requested to merge Demirtaş’s file with another case file at the 2nd court. The case at the 2nd court centers on the killing of 15-year-old Yasin Börü and three others in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Oct. 6-8, 2014.
The 19th court demanded that Demirtaş be held to account for the killing of Börü and three others by merging the files. After the 2nd court rejected the merger the issue was taken to a higher court, the Ankara Regional Court of Appeals.
The issue was finalized resolved, leading to a determination of a trial date for the jailed HDP co-leader, after the Ankara Regional Court of Appeals ruled that the Ankara 19th Criminal Court should hear the trial of Demirtaş, rejecting the same court’s request for a merger with the Ankara 2nd Criminal Court.
