CHP’s Bingöl: Demirtaş's defence of historic importance

According to a report by Nergis Demirkaya of Gazete Duvar, the third hearing of the trial pending which former HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş is detained has been completed. CHP Deputy General Chair Tekin Bingöl and CHP Ankara MP Murat Emir were among those monitoring the trial held in the courtroom at Ankara Sincan Prison Compound.

“THIS WILL NUMBER AMONG THE IMPORTANT DEFENCES IN OUR POLITICAL HISTORY”

The CHP’s deputy general chair with responsibility for human rights, Tekin Bingöl, noting that they monitored political hearings from time to time, conveyed the following impressions of the Demirtaş hearing:

“Selahattin Demirtaş is making a defence that will go down in history. His defence is a defence that does not express remorse, but is thoroughly aware of what he has done, defends this and believes in its correctness. I believe that this will number among the important defences in our political history. Just like Deniz and his companions’ defence.”

Bingöl, noting that it remains to be seen how much the court will be swayed by the defence which is heartfelt and relies on documents and whether it will rule following an impartial hearing, said, “I hope that a politician with a very important place in Turkish politics like Selahattin Demirtaş will speedily secure his freedom and resume his political activities.”

“THE HDP CONSTITUTES A DECISIVE BODIES OF VOTERS”

Bingöl had the following to say about Demirtaş’s comment in his defence, “We are the key party in the presidential election:”

“One of the important elections before us is the presidential election. He said this in the context of the HDP. At the end of the day, the HDP has an appreciable share of the vote. In recent elections, a body of more than six million of the electorate voted for the HDP. Seen in these terms, this stacks up as a significant body of voters. Taking the latest referendum results into consideration, this body of voters will indeed be a most important and decisive body of voters.”

“MPS SHOULD BE RELEASED PENDING TRIAL”

CHP Ankara MP Murat Emir was one of the parliamentarians to have witnessed HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş’s hearing of three days’ duration in its entirety. Emir, stating that members of parliament with parliamentary duties should be released pending trial, commented as follows:

“For sure, both members of parliament and party leaders can be prosecuted if suspected of having committed a crime under the Turkish Penal Code, but it is most important that they are not placed in pretrial detention. By detaining MPs their right to engage in politics is precluded. It is thereby made impossible for them to represent as the national will demands.”

“THE CASE LOOKS SET TO GIVE RISE TO POLITICAL RESULTS”

The CHP’s Emir, pointing out that the proceedings being conducted under an indictment created though combining 31 crime reports will take a long time, said, “It is an important trial and we will continue to monitor its legal and technical ramifications throughout the process. Selahattin Demirtaş alleges in his defence that he was expressing views that were set out in his party’s manifesto and, as such, his party and its general policies are on trial. So, the ruling in this case looks set to give rise to important results as far as Turkish politics is concerned.”

Emir, pointing out that certain of Demirtaş’s pronouncements that have been brought into issue in the case were comments that were deemed commonplace in the period referred to as the solution process, said, “Many events that have been placed in the indictment are known to the relevant ministers or even came about with their participation. So, the reason why the solution process did not come off and why it failed has come back on the political agenda here. And this is another matter for debate.”

Demirtaş davasını izleyen CHP'li Bingöl: Demirtaş'ın savunması, Denizlerin savunması gibi tarihi önemde