HRW, ARTICLE 19 slam ‘politically motivated prosecution’ of HDP politicians

A brief overview of the last four years

The joint statement of the HRW and ARTICLE 19 has shared an overview of the last four years in terms of the prosecution and arrest of the politicians. Some highlights from this overview are as follows:

"Selahattin Demirtaş and the others are being targeted because they led the Peoples' Democratic Party's political opposition to the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ remain in detention in Edirne F-type and Kandıra F-type prison in western Turkey, respectively, and are among six former HDP members of parliament still in prison after being detained on November 4, 2016, and in one case a few weeks later, while they were serving deputies. They are held either in pretrial detention or are serving sentences. Their prosecutions were overwhelmingly based on their political speeches over the years.

"On November 4, 2016, courts ordered the detention on terrorism charges of nine members of the party in parliament, including Demirtaş and Yüksekdağ, hours after police arrested them and three other party members serving in parliament in the middle of the night in a coordinated operation in various cities.

"While serving parliament, members usually enjoy a high level of immunity from prosecution for their political activities in office; the arrest and detention of the HDP deputies is based on a controversial temporary constitutional amendment and parliamentary vote in May 2016 that lifted their parliamentary immunity.

"Before parliament adopted the constitutional amendment, in 2015 and 2016 President Erdoğan had made several speeches pushing for them to be prosecuted and suggesting that the party should not be in parliament because it was indistinguishable from the armed PKK. International bodies including the Council of Europe's Venice Commission, which advises on constitutional matters, strongly criticized the way the deputies' parliamentary immunity was lifted. In individualized proceedings after they were detained en masse, the members of parliament stood trial on charges of 'membership of a terrorist organization,' 'spreading terrorist propaganda,' and many other crimes.

"In all cases, the bulk of the prosecution's evidence consists of the defendants' public speeches and activities as politicians and in no case is there evidence of material connection with violent acts. As the trials have been taking place, President Erdoğan has made several speeches saying that Demirtaş and the others must remain in detention.

"After exhausting domestic remedies, Demirtaş and the other deputies filed applications to the European Court of Human Rights regarding the removal of their parliamentary immunity and later concerning the legality of their detention. 

"On November 20, 2018, the European Court found in the case of Demirtaş v. Turkey (...) that 'It had been established beyond reasonable doubt that the extensions of Mr. Demirtaş' detention, especially during two crucial campaigns, the referendum and the presidential election, had pursued the predominant ulterior purpose of stifling pluralism and limiting freedom of political debate: the very core of the concept of a democratic society.'

"Demonstrating the importance of the case, the Court made the rare ruling that there had been a violation of Article 18 of the European Convention, meaning that the extension of Demirtaş' detention had been pursued for ulterior purposes and as such was an abuse of power. This was the first time the Court found such a violation in relation to Turkey.

"In a complicated sequence of events, described below, the Turkish government did not release Demirtaş from detention as the European Court's ruling required but instead expedited a conviction against him for a 2013 speech he had given and detained him again on new charges. The Turkish government and Demirtaş's lawyers referred the case to the European Court's Grand Chamber whose judgment, following a hearing on September 18, 2019, is pending. ARTICLE 19 and Human Rights Watch also submitted a joint third-party intervention before the Grand Chamber.

"Two days after the Grand Chamber hearing, the Ankara prosecutor sought the detention of Demirtaş again in relation to another criminal investigation based on the same facts, which form part of the evidence in the ongoing main trial against him. Demirtaş has now been in detention for over four years."