Fresh case against Selahattin Demirtaş. Six convicts and remandees go on hunger strike

In protest at the remandees Selahattin Demirtaş and Abdullah Zeydan being held in solitary confinement, the convicts and remandees Ü.D., N.Ö., E.K., Ş.B., T.U. and H.B., held at the same prison, started an indefinite hunger strike on 3 December.

The Prison Management and Monitoring Board turned down applications by HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş and Hakkari MP Abdullah Zeydan to share a cell. It was announced that Demirtaş and Zeydan would remain in one-person cells.

CASE BROUGHT AGAINST DEMİRTAŞ WITH THE CALL FOR HIS IMPRISONMENT

A case has been brought against the HDP’s remanded Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş alleging that, when he claimed that, “Soylu will head the trickery squad that the AKP will set up” to keep his party below the electoral threshold in the 7 June 2015 general election, he defamed the AKP’s Deputy Chair Responsible for Party Organisation, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

In the indictment, which was drafted by Ankara Republic Deputy Chief Prosecutor, Ahmet Hamdi Kaya, and has been accepted by Ankara Penal Court of First Instance No 43, Minister of the Interior Soylu appears as ‘complainant’, while HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş is named as ‘suspect’ and his imprisonment for up to two years and four months is demanded.

“NOT DEFAMATORY IN INTENT”

Demirtaş, who is being held on remand at Edirne F-Type Prison, offered the defence in the statement taken from him via video link, “At the end of the day, comments in which political opponents raise accusations against one another in election periods when political competition is at its fiercest are not defamatory in intent. This amounts to strong criticism and reproof in periods in which political strife and political tension is at its most intense. These comments must be interpreted in such a context.”

Demirtaş, noting that the HDP, in common with other parties, took steps over electoral and polling integrity, commented as follows:

“The individual making the complaint was responsible for the AK Party’s electoral affairs at that time. It came to our attention that, in certain places, meetings had been held and various election day tricks had been discussed with a view to ensuring that the HDP remained below the electoral threshold. Had we been in possession of one hundred percent reliable evidence, we would have passed this on to the public prosecution in the form of a crime report, but, in the absence of one hundred percent reliable evidence, we attempt to circumvent such situations by exposing them. At the end of the day, comments in which political opponents raise accusations against one another in election periods when political competition is at its fiercest are not defamatory in intent.”

It is alleged in the indictment that Demirtaş's comments transcended the bounds of the freedom of speech and were made with intent to belittle Minister Soylu.

It is stated in the indictment that Demirtaş committed the offence of publicly defaming Soylu in saying with slanderous intent that the latter was engaged in a team effort to conduct electoral fraud and was training team members in the conducting of electoral fraud.

The call is made in the indictment for Demirtaş to be sentenced to up to two years and four months’ imprisonment.

Demirtaş was sent to Edirne F-Type Prison by the duty Diyarbakır Penal Bench of the Peace No 2 on 4 November after being remanded for the offence of “membership of an armed terrorist organisation”.