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Bar association presidents spoke to the Mesopotamia Agency (MA) and asked, “Will the judges bear the weight of this case?”
The Ankara Chief Public prosecutor’s office prepared an indictment regarding the Kobani protest on 6-8 October 2014. Former Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ are among 108 defendants charged with “disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state”.
Diyarbakır Bar Association President Nahit Eren said they will follow the case closely. Two of those arrested, Selahattin Demirtaş and Ayla Akat Ata, were also members of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, Eren said, adding, ”the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Demirtaş must be released immediately. However, after the decision, it was expanded through another investigation file and a new arrest warrant was issued for Demirtaş.”
The Kobani case is a typical example of the government’s goal of designing the opposition through the judiciary, Eren said. ”Years later, a party is criminalised over the Kobani incidents and this situation is also related to the closure of the HDP. Unfortunately, similar cases have always been opened against Kurds and Kurdish politicians throughout the history of the Republic. This case is a continuation of the case of Şeyh Sait, Seyit Rıza, and the case of 49s, and also the cases opened against the elected in 2007. We know very well that these lawsuits were opened with the same intention today. Once again, this case shows the government’s intention to postpone the solution of the Kurdish issue, to direct the judiciary on political issues and to insist on a deadlock.”
Hakkari Bar Association President Ergün Canan said,’ ‘The indictment prepared on the case is not based on the law. It is illegal and consists of fiction. Unfortunately, the objective of the trial courts are suspicious. They are not conducting effective investigations in Turkey and we do not have much hope for this case.”
Recalling that the case was changed after the ECtHR found rights violations in the detention of Selahattin Demirtaş and ruled for his immediate release, Urfa Bar Association President Abdullah Öncel said, ”This case is of historical importance. It is a purely political cause. This case is the peak of political power’s influence on the judiciary,”
