Imprisoned Kurdish party leader says Turkish judiciary 'runs away from me'

An Ankara court on Thursday extended HDP head Selahattin Demirtas's pre-trial detention for two more months in the first hearing of his case that took place 399 days after his arrest.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed co-leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) attacked Turkish judiciary which on Thursday extended his pre-trial detention for two more months in the first hearing of his case that took place 399 days after his arrest.

"Back in the day, there used to be a gut-wrenching judiciary. Now we don't even have that. The word justice has been erased from 'Palaces of Justice.' There remains only 'Palace,'" a post on his official Twitter handle read.

Courthouses are called 'justice palace' in the Turkish language, and the 'palace' refers to the President's office in Turkish politics and media.

An Ankara Criminal Court judge ruled Thursday Demirtas should remain imprisoned until the next hearing on February 14, 2018, reported.

"They arrested me because I was allegedly running away from the judiciary. The judiciary has been running away from me for 13 months [now]," Demirtas said in another tweet apparently relayed by his lawyers.

Held at a supermax prison since November 2016 when a massive ongoing state crackdown on HDP began resulting in the continued detention of nine lawmakers, over 80 mayors, and seven thousand members, Demirtas was not allowed to appear in the Ankara court.

"Those committing crimes will one day face justice. Not we, but those who kowtow in front of the Palace will be shamed by history," he said.

Prosecutors have asked up to 142 years in prison for Demirtas whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government accuses of terrorism and separatism.

He has also been charged with insulting the Turkish republic and Erdogan.

In September, upon several posts from Demirtas' Twitter in which he said his health and morale was high, authorities in the northwestern Turkish province of Edirne where he is in a supermax prison conducted a search in his room.

In a report on the Kurdish leader's case, the Human Rights Watch said the prolonged pretrial detention of Demirtas challenged basic democratic principles and was part of a wider pattern of repression against government critics.

“Holding the leader of a major opposition party in pretrial detention for over a year on flimsy charges is another example of the political abuse of the criminal justice system we repeatedly see in Turkey,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe, and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“Keeping Demirtas in jail for months on end not only denies his right to political association, participation, and freedom of expression, but it disenfranchises those who voted for him and his party,” he added.

“The evidence against Selahattin Demirtaş consists largely of his political speeches and lacks any compelling evidence of criminal activity,” Williamson said.

“It’s hard to conclude otherwise than that the case against him is the Turkish government’s politically motivated attempt to undermine the parliamentary opposition.”

 

Editing by Sam A.