Criminal Complaint by Demirtaş against Erdoğan, Soylu

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Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) presidential candidate, İstanbul MP Selahattin Demirtaş have filed a criminal complaint against President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu and some journalists via his lawyers.

In the petition, it was demanded that an investigation be launched against Erdoğan, Soylu and people who make news reports and write columns that qualify to be an attack against his personal rights on charges of “slander, insult, attempting to affect fair trial and inciting people to enmity and hostility”.

Those who were complained against in addition to Erdoğan are: Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu, columnists Hikmet Genç, Fadime Özkan, Mehtap Yılmaz, journalists Yasemin Aslan, Ahmet Fatih Erturan and Ömer Turan, and Akşam, Star, Yeni Akit and Yeni Şafak newspapers’ editors-in-chief and managing editors.

Demirtaş has been kept in Edirne Type F Prison since November 4, 2016.

What did they say about Demirtaş?

As to the Kobane protests that took place from October 6-8, 2014, President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “He is the one who has the blood of 53 people on his hands” for Demirtaş at the Adıyaman public meeting on June 1, 2018.

In the complaint petition submitted to Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, it was expressed that Erdoğan continued to make such statements in the following TV programs he attended and the public meeting held in Diyarbakır on June 3. (AS/TK)