Istanbul, Dec 26 (EFE) .- An Ankara court on Saturday rejected the release of leftist politician Selahattin Demirtas, former leader of the pro-Kurdish HDP party, imprisoned since 2016, despite a recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) from Strasbourg.
Demirtas’s lawyers had requested his release, invoking the ECHR ruling, issued last Tuesday, but Ankara judges said they found no changes in the defendant’s situation, reports the Turkish Anadolu agency.
The court argued that the judgment of the ECHR is drawn up in English and that it still does not have an official translation from the Turkish Ministry of Justice, so it cannot assess what application and what alleged crimes the European magistrates refer to.
As a member of the Council of Europe, Turkey is obliged to apply the judgments of the ECHR, the highest court of all the countries affiliated to this body.
However, last Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the ECHR of being “politicized” and assured that it cannot replace the Turkish courts, in addition to reiterating his conviction that Demirtas is “responsible for the death of many people. “.
Demirtas is charged with “incitement to terrorist acts” for having made a call in October 2014 to demonstrate against the jihadist siege of the Kurdish city of Kobane in Syria.
The protests led to clashes between leftist Kurds and Islamists and caused the death of 50 people.
The ECHR has considered that keeping the accused in preventive detention for four years violates his rights and is aimed at “limiting the freedom of political debate.” EFE
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