ANKARA - European parliamentarians launched a campaign for the release of HDP’s former co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who has been in prison for 4 years.

 

uropean parliamentarians launched a campaign for the release of HDP’s former co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who has been in prison for 4 years despite the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling that he should be released.

 

European Union Parliamentarian Evin Incir who organized the campaign, told ANF that Demirtaş should be released because he was arrested for political reasons. Evin İncir, who was born in Amed in Northern Kurdistan, was elected as a member of  the parliament from the Social Democratic Labor Party in the European Parliament elections held on May 26, 2019.

 

590 MEPS DEMAND DEMİRTAŞ'S RELEASE

 

İncir said "We expected Turkey to respect the European Court of Human Rights ruling that urged Turkey to release Demirtaş. But Turkey refused to comply with the court decision, which is binding. For this reason, I took the initiative in January and made a motion at the European Parliament".

 

İncir said that the motion demanding the immediate release of Demirtaş was accepted with the support of a majority in the parliament, and 590 of the 705 deputies voted for the motion to be debated.

 

SITUATION OF DEMİRTAŞ TO BE DISCUSSED ON MARCH 10

 

"The European parliamentarians of 47 countries that are members of the European Council participated in the campaign. We sent the signatures to the Council of Ministers of the European Union. The issue will be discussed in the council on March 10", İncir said

 

Incir remarked over the Turkish government’s attempt to lift political immunity of HDP MPs: "It is crazy to lift their immunity. Almost every week we see academics, journalists and politicians are arbitrarily arrested. European parliamentarians are monitoring that closely. Last week, the parties demanded the release of all political prisoners in Turkey. "

 

Incir said, "The Turkish government seeks  to lift parliamentarians' immunity in order to arrest them. They did the same thing to Demirtaş.".

 

Incir maintained that the Turkish state opposed the release of Demirtaş since his release would result in the release of other HDP politicians and intellectuals.