ANKARA - The Kobané Case in which HDP's politicians are on trial, started with journalists and observers not being allowed in the court room. The hearing continues with the procedural objections of the lawyers. 

 

The 4th hearing of the Kobanê Case, where 108 people, 20 of whom are currently behind bars, including the executives of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), will be held at the Sincan Prison Campus today.

 

The 108 defendants of the case heard by Ankara 22nd High Criminal Court are tried on 29 different charges and a total of 19 thousand 680 years of prison sentence is requested for the defendants. 

 

Taking the floor to convey their objections on the procedure, Arif Ali Cangı, attorney of former HDP Central Executive Board (MYK) member Cihan Erdal said: "We see that all of the supporters and voters of the ruling parties are demanding to participate in the proceedings. At this point we have to discuss the participation complainants."

 

Stating that their objections should be taken in every participation request, Cangı stated that it cannot be made sense for the Internal Affairs Department and the MIT to request to participate in the case as complainants. Reminding that it is their duty to prevent the events in the period in question, Cangı said: “This request for participation is a confession that they could not fulfill their duties. If they had been able to prevent those events, those who caused those events would actually be in front of you now. In this way, this case file is turned into a political lynching case against HDP executives. The situation of the complainant and the victim needs to be evaluated very sensitively. The documents included in the case file also include complaints sent from CIMER (Presidential Communication Center). For example, someone applied to CIMER about Selahattin Demirtaş and wants him to be punished in the most severe way, which is included in the file. The fact that these CIMER complaints have been sent to the file affects the trial. For this reason, they should be removed from the file because it violates the right to a fair trial. Cangı also added that the fact that the institutions asking questions to the politicians before their request for participation is accepted is an attempt at making the politicians look guilty in public eye. Cangı said: "We demand that the complainants not to be allowed to ask questions from now on."

 

The hearing continues with the statements of the lawyers.