A court in Ankara on Friday night ordered jailed Kurdish politician Aysel Tuğluk to be released from the 15th hearing of the Kobanê trial.
Meanwhile, Tuğluk’s lawyer and Peoples’ Democratic Party’ (HDP) Law and Human Rights Commission Co-chair said on Saturday in their press release that the court dismissed the scientific reports documenting Aysel Tuğluk’s illness and decided to release her based on “the consciencal dissatisfaction of the court in that the defendant’s discomfort was used as an argument for avoiding the defence.”
Tuğluk’s detention, however, will continue due to the prison sentence she received in the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) trial in 2018.
Tuğluk is one of scores of Kurdish politicians and activists currently facing prosecution in the Kobane trial. She has been imprisoned since her arrest in 2016. In 2018, she was handed a 10-year sentence at the DTK trial for “leadership of a terrorist organisation”, and she is currently held in a maximum-security prison near Istanbul.
The 15th hearing of the Kobanê trial begun nine days ago. The court heard Tuğluk’s testimony via videoconference on Monday in spite of her deteriorating health condition due to dementia.
Although Tuğluk was seen to be forgetful and confused with her statements in court, the court administrator in charge of the ongoing Kobanê trial asked her on 28 July to personally tell the court that she cannot testify and that her lawyer should continue the defence.
“I don’t know when it happened, or what happened. I don’t even know what I’m being tried for,” a Twitter account following the trial had quoted on Monday Tuğluk as saying at the trial.
