The Turkish court that is overseeing the Kobani trial has decided to extend the remand in custody of the politicians on trial in the case, rejecting all the applications made by the defence.
In a monthly review of custody in the case, the court unanimously rejected all applications for the release on bail of the 18 detainees, citing “the existence of concrete evidence supporting strong suspicion of the alleged offences” and arguing that in light of the circumstances giving rise to concern that the defendants might flee, judicial control measures would be insufficient.
The Court also rejected the applications to lift the judicial control measures for those who are being tried on bail.
In a detailed assessment for each detainee, the court also rejected the specific request by Selahattin Demirtaş, former co-chair of the HDP, to include all parliamentary speeches made by him and other defendants in the case file, citing the perceived sufficiency of the existing speech recordings.
The court also rejected the request for an expert opinion on legislative immunity based on the Constitution.
Demirtaş’s applications revolve around the fact that many of the charges against the Kurdish politicians in the indictment are based on their speeches at rallies. However, under Turkish law, speeches made by MPs in parliament are immune from prosecution, even if they are repeated outside parliament. The politicians on trial argue that all the speeches in the case file are similar to speeches they made in parliament at the time.
The high-profile trial involves 108 politicians from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), including the top executives of the party. The case was brought against the HDP members for calling for protests against the siege of the Kurdish-majority Syrian town of Kobani (Kobanê) by the Islamic State (ISIS), and for calling for solidarity with the people of the town.
The HDP party members are accused of initiating the protests, which took place on 6-7 October 2014 in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority cities, and turned violent, leaving more than 40 people dead.
The protests were in response to Turkey’s refusal to launch a military operation against ISIS in defence of Kobani, despite a law passed by the Turkish parliament authorising cross-border operations in Syria, and the Turkish authorities banning Kurdish volunteers from crossing the border to Kobani to fight against ISIS.
In the indictment, the prosecutor seeks 38 aggravated life sentences for the defendants on 29 different charges, including “murder”, “looting”, “wounding a public official with a weapon”, “burning flags” and “disturbing the national unity and integrity of the country”.
