Imprisoned HDP co-chair's case in limbo over disagreement between courts
ANKARA
A case into imprisoned Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has not been processed due to a disagreement between two courts. Demirtaş’s case file, in which he is accused of “establishing and leading a terrorist organization,” “making terrorist propaganda,” and “praising crime and criminals,” has not been processed because the Ankara 2nd High Criminal Court and the Ankara 19th Criminal Court had a disagreement over the case.
The conflict arose after the Ankara 19th Criminal Court requested to merge the case file with a case in the 2nd court, where the killing of a 15-year-old boy, Yasin Börü, and three others during events in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır between Oct. 6 and 8, 2014 was under investigation.
The 19th court demanded Demirtaş be held accountable for the killing of Börü, by merging the files, but the 2nd court rejected the merge.
The issue was brought to a higher court, which also rejected the demand.
The high court ruled that Demirtaş may be tried for “inciting to commit a crime” about the October 2014 incidents but cannot be held responsible for the killing of Börü.
“It is understood that there is not any issue that he might be related to within this case file,” it said.
Demirtaş’s lawyer, Mahsuni Kahraman, said the case file failed to be processed amid the disagreements between the courts.
“Nobody wants to carry out Demirtaş’s trial because its burden is heavy. We believe the courts do not want to take the files because the alleged crimes stated in the courts are far-fetched and false,” Kahraman said on Aug. 23.
He added that because the file cannot be processed, the examination of Demirtaş’s imprisonment, which is required to be done every month, has not been done for two months.
“Demirtaş has been in prison for about two months without any court decisions. The examination of his imprisonment has not been done for the past two months. We will demand his release,” he said.
