Basak Demirtas expects husband’s release by Turkey after European court ruling

24-12-2020
Karwan Faidhi Dri
Karwan Faidhi Dri @KarwanFaidhiDri
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region  Basak Demirtas, wife of jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas said on Thursday that she expects her husband to be released by Turkish authorities following a release order from a top European court. 

“I expect Selahattin to be released of course because Turkey is one of the signatory countries to the European Convention on Human Rights,” she told Reuters on Thursday, adding that Ankara is a member of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as well.

The Grand Chamber of the ECHR ruled on Tuesday that Turkey must “take all necessary measures” to secure the “immediate release” of Demirtas, the former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

“We knew both Selahattin and his friends have been kept in jail unlawfully, unjustly. It made us happy that the ECHR made this official,” Basak Demirtas said.

“The issue is not only about Selahattin. The whole judicial system needs to be fixed.”

Demirtas was detained in November 2016 along with a number of other HDP officials and parliamentarians for their alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey but classified as a terrorist organization by Ankara.  

He faces up to 142 years in jail for the charges brought against him, which relate to speeches he made during nationwide protests in 2014 in solidarity with the Kurdish city of Kobane in Syria, then besieged by the Islamic State (ISIS). 

Tens of people died in the protest after clashes erupted between protesters and security forces. Turkish officials continue to blame Demirtas and the HDP for the casualties. 

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier this month that Demirtas would not benefit from any planned “reforms” made to the country’s judicial system, branding him a “terrorist”. 

He also dismissed the ECHR ruling, accusing it on Wednesday of "double standards" for failing to condemn PKK "violence".

Demirtas remains in detention even though two Turkish courts and the ECHR have called his detention unlawful, his wife said on Thursday. “Now, you cannot declare anyone guilty only because you want it that way,” she tweeted. “This is the real crime!”
 

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