Selahattin Demirtaş acquitted

It was entered into the records that a letter had been written to the prison for Demirtaş to participate in the hearing via video link, but, no link could be set up because Demirtaş had not agreed to participate in the hearing via video link.

With Demirtaş, detained on other charges, unable to attend the hearing of the trail being held at Istanbul Anatolian Penal Court of First Instance No 34, five attorneys representing Demirtaş were in attendance. Two attorneys representing intervening parties also attended the hearing. Judge İbrahim Fikri Talman entered into the records that a letter had been written to Edirne F Type Prison where Demirtaş is being held in detention on other charges for him to participate in the hearing via video link, but no link could be set up because Demirtaş had not agreed to participate in the hearing via video link.

One of Demirtaş’s attorneys, İlknur Alcan sought an acquittal ruling, stating that her client had held a political party meeting and had not made comments that incited one portion of the people against another in his speech. Another of Demirtaş’s attorneys, Bahri Bayram Belen, recalling that his client was a political party leader, sought his acquittal, noting that recourse to the notion of rostrum immunity should be available to him and his comments were under legal protection. The intervening parties’ attorneys then indicated that their complaints continued and called for the defendant to be punished.

Announcing the decision, court judge İbrahim Fikri Talman stated that it was necessary to conclude that the defendant’s comments for which he had been indicted were subsumed under freedom of speech regulated in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and ruled to acquit Demirtaş.

FROM THE INDICTMENT 

It was stated in the indictment drafted by Istanbul Anatolian Republic Chief Prosecution that Dinamit Radyo Televizyon A.Ş. and Star Medya Yayıncılık A.Ş. were the complainants against Selahattin Demirtaş, who had addressed a rally held in Istanbul Sncaktepe prior to the general elections held in June 2015. It was stated in the indictment that Demirtaş addressed the said rally waving a copy of Star Newspaper in his hand and, following this speech, a bomb was placed at Star Newspaper’s address in Küçükçekmece’s Bahariye Street on 19 July 2015 and the bomb was detonated by experts. In the indictment, a prison sentence of between one year and three years was sought for Demirtaş on the count of “openly inciting the people to hatred and enmity.”