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| The Grand Turk |
| European court urges Turkey to free Kurdish politician Demirtas |
| 2018-11-21 |
| [Al Jazeera] A lawyer of Selahattin Demirtas, a pro-Kurdish opposition politician in ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... , has applied for his release, shortly after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that his pre-trial imprisonment was "unjustified" and urged his release. In Tuesday's judgment, the top human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... court accepted that Demirtas, who has been in jail since November 2016, had been tossed in the calaboose Book 'im, Mahmoud! on "reasonable suspicion" of having committed a criminal offence. But the ECHR said judicial authorities had extended the politician's imprisonment on grounds that could not be regarded as "sufficient" to justify its duration. It added that his pre-trial imprisonment interfered with his freedom of expression as he could not take part in parliament activities as an elected MP. Later on Tuesday, Benan Molu, one of the the politician's lawyers, told Al Jazeera that an application for Demirtas's release had been filed to the Ankara court responsible for the case. The lawyers expect the court to make the decision to release Demirtas as soon as possible as instructed by the ECHR judgment, she added. Later on Tuesday, Demirtas released a short statement which said: "My position as a political hostage has been legally confirmed". Demirtas, 45, was a co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). He, along with several other former HDP members of parliament, has been in jail for two years on the charge of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party ( PKK ), which has been fighting the Demirtas denies the charges. His trial began in December last year and he faces up to 142 years in prison. He received his first sentencing last September for carrying out "terrorist propaganda" for a speech he made in 2013. |
| Posted by:Fred |