Court of Cassation upholds prison sentence of Selahattin Demirtaş

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The prison sentence of 4 years and 8 months given to Selahattin Demirtaş, the imprisoned former Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), has been upheld by the Court of Cassation.

The İstanbul 26th İstanbul Heavy Penal Court previously sentenced Demirtaş to prison due to his statement during Newroz celebrations in İstanbul on March 17, 2013. The Court of Cassation upheld this prison sentence on April 26, when the first hearing of Kobanî trial was held.

Ümit Dede, the HDP Vice Chair Responsible for the Law and Human Rights Commission, released a written statement about the Court of Cassation ruling today (April 29). "The upholding of Selahattin Demirtaş's sentence is null and void," Dede has indicated.

'Attacks of purge carried out by judiciary'

"The judiciary does what is required by the instruction it received," Ümit Dede has noted and briefly added the following:

"The fact that the Court of Cassation upheld this ruling on April 26, 2021, on the day when the Kobanî Plot Case began, shows that the related ruling is a part of the attacks of purge carried out against our party and the elected politicians by the hand of the judiciary.

"Accepting Erdoğan's statement of 'Then, we will make our counter move and get the job done' after the ECtHR gave a ruling of immediate release for Demirtaş, the judicial institutions have once again done what is required by the political instruction it received."

'It is not a coincidence'

Underlining that "the plot cases filed against the HDP and HDP politicians are directed from a single center," Ümit Dede has said, "As it was quite clearly and openly indicated in the ECtHR Grand Chamber ruling for Demirtaş, the rulings given about him are political."

"Given by the partial and dependent members of the judiciary, this ruling is also null and void. It is not a coincidence that the Court of Cassation gave the ruling on April 26," Dede has stressed further. (AS/SD)