Demirtaş: Constitutional Court Has Not Discussed My Request for Release

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The imprisoned Presidential candidate of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş shared a message on Twitter today (June 19) and stated that the news claiming that his request for release has been rejected by the Constitutional Court do not reflect the truth.

Demirtaş said that the Constitutional Court has not yet discussed the request for release submitted by his attorneys and added,

"They are still pretending to be dead. The Constitutional Court has been made afraid of handling my [case] file. It is a real pity."

HDP: The Constitutional Court gave a ruling upon a non-existent request

In a news report published on June 13, the state-run Anadolu Agency wrote that Demirtaş's request for release was rejected by the Constitutional Court.

In a written statement released on June 14, the HDP stated that the Constitutional Court has rejected a request submitted as per the Article No. 73 of the Internal Regulation though no applications or requests have been made as per the related article. The request submitted by the attorneys of Demirtaş was related to the Article No. 68 of the Internal Regulation.

What happened?

An application was filed to the Ankara 19th Heavy Penal Court for the release of Selahattin Demirtaş from prison on May 15, 2018. The application was rejected on May 21.

The request for Demirtaş's release was then taken to the upper court, the Ankara 20th Heavy Penal Court, which also rejected Demirtaş's demand for release on May 24.

The attorneys of Selahattin Demirtaş applied to the Constitutional Court as per the Article No. 68 of the Internal Regulation so that the case of Demirtaş will be handled with priority. (EKN/SD)