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The fourth hearing of the Kobane trial is held at the Ankara 22nd Heavy Penal Court on 20 Sept 2021.
108 people have been facing charges related supposedly to the Kobane protests on October 6-8, 2014. 20 people are in custody awaiting trial, including former co-chairs of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, and the former co-chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Sebahat Tuncel.
Speaking to JinNews, lawyer Şevin Kaya said that ”the trial is a fiction, a play”, underlining that “the politicians on trial stand in a position”, not to defend themselves, but “to judge the court and the allegations.”
Drawing attention to the provocative attacks over the ongoing trial, Şevin Kaya said, ”They have tried to provoke the politicians on trial, the lawyers and the relatives following the case, by yelling slogans and insults at them. But we will not be provoked by them.”
Kaya stated that not only Kobane and the HDP, but politics itself was on trial here:
”Neither we, as lawyers, nor our friends on trial will accept any treatment or attitude outside the legal framework,” she said. “The court’s intention to end the trial hastily indicates that it is planning to make a quick decision. In fact, it is impossible for a hearing that contains nearly 400 case files to be completed in 3-4 weeks.”
Underlining that ”it is not possible for politicians in prison conditions to prepare adequately for the trial”, said Kaya referring to the technical inadequacies in prison, adding that the lawyers also had difficulty accessing documents because of the restrictions due to the Covid 19 pandemic. ”We are just trying to prepare as best as we can,” she said.
Kaya emphasised that they were fighting to reach the truth in the case in order for the law to be applied with fairness.
