Jailed co-chair of Turkey’s HDP, Selahattin Demirtaş, refuses to be handcuffed while being taken to the court
Jailed co-chair of Turkey’s HDP (People’s Democratic Party), Selahattin Demirtaş, was not brought to the court in Ankara today (July 6) as he refused to be taken in handcuffs.
In his statement delivered by his lawyers, Demirtaş reminded that he was the head of a political party that won 6 million people’s votes and that his seat as a lawmaker was still in force. “We are going to resist against injustices in any case and we are going to preserve the honor of the will of people that we represent.”
As Hüseyin Şimşek from BirGün reported, a day earlier, authorities had tried to have HDP co-chair taken from the Edirne prison and brought to Ankara for his court hearing. As they requested him to be handcuffed while in the prison car, Demirtaş refused.
“I am a lawmaker whose immunity is still in force and I am on duty. I represent the people’s will. I see it as unlawful and immoral to be handcuffed throughout a long-distance journey that will take hours. Since I did not accept being handcuffed, I was brought back to my cell without having got in the prison shuttle”, Demirtaş said.
Since it had been announced earlier that Demirtaş was to appear before the court instead of testifying through a video teleconference, hundreds of supporters came to the courthouse in Ankara on Friday (July 7) morning. When they found out that Demirtaş had not been brought to Ankara from Edirne, the supporting crowd protested the authorities over their insistence of handcuffing their co-chair.
The court postponed the hearing to November 24. It’s been reported that the jailed co-chair will appear before the court for the next hearing through teleconferencing.
Co-chair of HDP, Serpil Kemalbay, also reacted against the authorities’ enforcement by saying it is a ‘different dimension of the coup’.
“We know that there is now no legal order. With this latest attempt, they (authorities) cannot degrade the value of Selahattin Demirtaş at people’s hearts. Our people have embraced this struggle and they will continue it”, she said.
HDP’s Adana MP Meral Danış Beştaş took the issue to the parliament by posing a question to be answered by the Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım. Beştaş asked ‘the real purpose behind insisting on handcuffing the co-chair while traveling although there is no such regulation’ and added: “Has the order for Demirtaş to be handcuffed been given by you, Mr. Prime Minister?”
In Turkey, there are currently 11 lawmakers from HDP and, 1 from CHP, jailed mostly over terror charges.