Lawyers call on Europe to compel Turkey to release Demirtaş

The Turkish authorities arrested the former co-chair of the HDP, Salahuddin Demirtaş, in early October 2016 with the former co-chair of the party, Vigen Yuksekdag, in addition to 13 representatives of the party, under the pretext of cooperation with the PKK.

The Turkish court ruled to imprison Saladin Demirtaş for a period of four years and eight months without trial, facing prison sentences under the pretext of "terrorism" by being jailed for 142 years if he was found guilty of his main charge.

On the 22nd of December, the European Court of Human Rights condemned the arrest of the former co-chair of the HDP by the Turkish authorities, calling for his immediate release, and the court ordered Turkey to pay Demirtas financial compensation in the amount of 60,400 euros, and the court also said that Turkey's justifications for his arrest since four years on terrorism-related charges, which are nothing but a veil, through which the authorities seek to limit pluralism and democratic debate in the country.

In this context, lawyers in al-Shahba canton spoke to our agency, calling on the international community to hold the Turkish state accountable for its failure to respect the charters and decisions issued by the European Court of Human Rights to immediately release Saladin Demirtaş.

Attorney Roshin Mustafa said: "The arrest of the former co-chair of the HDP, Salah al-Din Demirtaş, is nothing new and strange from the Turkish state's policies based on racism that cannot be accepted without one flag, one religion, and one nation."

Lawyer Roshin explained that "the fascist Turkish authorities led by the Justice and Development Party are seeking, by keeping Demirtaş in prison for 142 years, to eliminate their opponents after the failed coup in 2016, using these events to silence the peoples calling for freedom and demanding their rights."

Roshin confirmed that Saladin Demirtaş's survival in detention, and his confrontation with prison penalties, constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights.

Attorney Roshin Mustafa stressed that the international community "must fully realize that the Turkish state has become a rogue state according to international law and does not respect international provisions, charters and covenants related to human rights and freedom of expression."4

For his part, the co-chair of the Lawyers Union in Afrin region, Gabriel Mustafa, indicated that the Turkish state’s intransigence in not releasing Saladin Demirtaş and the failure to implement the decision issued by the European Court “indicates that there is no justice and an independent judiciary in Turkey, but rather it has become a political judiciary. "

Mustafa stressed that the implementation of the European Court’s decision to immediately release Demirtaş by the Turkish state would pave the way for Turkey to release thousands of political detainees in Turkish prisons.

Lawyer Gabriel Mustafa asserted that the Turkish fascist authorities ’arrest of democratic politicians and the recent ruling against the Turkish politician, Leila Guven, a member of the Turkish Parliament for the HDP expresses the extent of the dictatorship of the Turkish state, and the AKP’s exploitation of the judiciary and confining it to its hand. ”

The co-chair of the Lawyers Union called on the international community to oblige Turkey to implement the decision issued by the European Court and release Saladin Demirtaş, and to hold the Turkish state accountable for not respecting international covenants and covenants related to human rights and freedom of expression.

J.O

ANHA

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