HDP submits defense over closure case
ANKARA
The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has submitted its defense to the Constitutional Court over the ongoing closure case, stressing this move was political rather than legal and seeking the exclusion of the HDP from the political environment.
The HDP’s 220-page defense was handed over to the top court late April 19. HDP deputy co-chairman Ümit Dede told reporters that the indictment prepared by the Supreme Court of Appeals was a political text and not a legal one, recalling that the first indictment was rejected by the Constitutional Court last year.
“The second indictment submitted on June 7, 2021, was not much different from the first one,” Dede stated, underlining that the HDP’s defense was also prepared in line with the fact that the indictment was written with political motives.
The HDP’s defense is answering the chief prosecutor’s accusations against the party, Dede stated, adding, “This indictment, which we see as the last chain of the political attacks against the HDP since 2015, is being utilized as an argument to push the HDP out of the democratic political area.”
The reason why the HDP has become a target can be seen in the results of the June 2015 general elections, Dede claimed. “This [indictment] is a political document and is not written in line with the constitution.”
The 609-page indictment submitted to the top court by the Supreme Court of Appeals chief prosecutor, Bekir Şahin, stressed that the HDP should be closed and more than 500 of its top officials should be banned from politics over the party’s alleged links to terrorist organizations.
The indictment was accepted by the Constitutional Court last year, which paved the way for the official start of the court case.
In the 2018 parliamentary elections, the HDP won 11.7 percent of the vote, or nearly 6 million votes. It currently has 55 lawmakers in the 600-seat parliament.
