Application to Constitutional Court over failure to implement ECtHR ruling on Demirtaş
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After the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) concluded that the penalization of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) former Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş over a speech that he made on Roj TV in 2005 was a "violation of right", his attorneys applied to the local court for retrial.
However, the local court rejected this request. The attorneys of the arrested politician have taken the issue to the Constitutional Court.
The judicial process was as follows:
* Announcing its ruling in 2010, Diyarbakır 5th Heavy Penal ruled that Demirtaş should be sentenced to 10 months in prison for "propagandizing for an organization." The announcement of the verdict was deferred.
* After the Court of Cassation upheld the verdict of the local court, Demirtaş applied to the ECtHR, indicating that his freedom of thought and expression as guaranteed by the related article of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was violated by this penalization.
* On July 9, 2019, the ECtHR ruled that his freedom of expression as per the Article 10 of the ECHR was violated, sentencing Turkey to pay 2,500 Euro in non-pecuniary damages and 1,000 Euro as court expenses.
* Following this verdict, Mesut Beştaş, an attorney for Demirtaş, applied to the Diyarbakır 5th Heavy Penal Court. Referring to the ECtHR verdict, Beştaş requested that his client stand trial again so that the consequences of the violation could be eliminated. He also requested Demirtaş's acquittal.
Court rejected the application
As reported by Gazete Duvar news website, the local court examined the application of Demirtaş on January 28, 2020, ruling that as the deferment of the announcement of the verdict was not a final verdict, the request of Demirtaş for retrial based on the ECtHR verdict should be rejected.
His attorney applied to the Constitutional Court
Following this rejection, attorney Beştaş applied to the upper court, the Diyarbakır 6th Heavy Penal Court. With his objection rejected by the upper court as well, he made an individual application to the Constitutional Court.
The petition of the attorney to the supreme court has underlined that "while the local court shall give a ruling of retrial for Selahattin Demirtaş in accordance with ECtHR verdict of right violation, it arbitrarily and unlawfully rejected the request without examining the application or ECtHR verdict."
Beştaş has also applied to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the ground that Turkey failed to implement the ECtHR ruling. The Committee is authorized to monitor implementation of ECtHR rulings.
Trial of Selahattin DemirtaşSelahattin Demirtaş was detained on November 4, 2016. He was arrested and sent to Silivri Prison in İstanbul on the same day. He is still behind bars in Silivri. All his investigations, except for one, have been combined in a single file. The lawsuit filed at the Ankara 19th Heavy Penal Court has still not been concluded. As his request for release as part of this suit was rejected, his attorneys appealed to the Constitutional Court. In their application to the Constitutional Court on May 29, 2018, the attorneys requested that his application be reviewed with priority. However, the Court has not yet responded to the application. On June 26, 2018, his case was taken to the ECtHR. Shortly after this appeal to the ECtHR, the court announced its judgment in his second case. Tried in the case together with former HDP MP Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Selahattin Demirtaş has been sentenced to 4 years, 8 months in prison on the charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" by the İstanbul 26th Heavy Penal Court. One month later, on October 25, 2018, his verdict of conviction reached the 2nd Penal Chamber of İstanbul Regional Court of Justice, the court of appeal. On November 17, 2018, the ECtHR announced that it would announce its judgment as to his application on November 20. The court of appeal swiftly reviewed the verdict of conviction of Demirtaş and started discussing it on November 19. On November 20, 2018, the ECtHR concluded that Demirtaş was "arrested with political motivations" and ruled for his release. The Ankara 19th Heavy Penal Court rejected his request for release on November 30 ,2018, indicating that "his arrest was a moderate measure". On December 4, 2018, the 2nd Penal Chamber of İstanbul Regional Court of Justice upheld his verdict of conviction. With this verdict, Demirtaş became an arrested convict. The attorneys of Demirtaş appealed again to the ECtHR on February 19, 2019, and requested that the issues not discussed, found inadmissible and not regarded as violation right be reviewed again. The government also appealed against the ECtHR verdict on Demirtaş. In its petition, the government also requested that the ECtHR review its ruling of right violation again. That being the case, the case of Demirtaş has been taken to the ECtHR Grand Chamber, which announced that it would discuss the application on September 18, 2019. In his hearing at the Ankara 19th Heavy Penal Court on September 2, the court board has ruled that Demirtaş shall be released. As his request for release has been rejected, his attorneys lodged a request of "deduction", demanding that the period that he has already served in prison be deducted from his prison term so that he could be released on probation. This request has not been answered yet. |
(EMK/SD)
