{"id":42991,"date":"2020-06-20T06:23:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-20T06:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42991"},"modified":"2020-06-20T06:23:39","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T06:23:39","slug":"arab-israeli-woman-draws-surfers-to-her-fishing-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42991","title":{"rendered":"Arab Israeli woman draws surfers to her fishing village"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nANKARA: The Constitutional Court of Turkey announced on Thursday night that it had ordered the release of former presidential candidate and co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples\u2019 Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas.<\/p>\n

\nThe court ruled that Demirtas\u2019 right to liberty had been violated because his detention had exceeded \u201ca reasonable time,\u201d and ordered that compensation of TL50,000 ($7,289) be paid to Demirtas.<\/p>\n

\nThe surprise ruling followed several calls from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the release of Demirtas, who is accused by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK) \u2014 an accusation denied by both Demirtas and the HDP.<\/p>\n

\nThe Kurdish leader \u2014 who has been in prison since 2016 on terror charges carrying a sentence of up to 142 years \u2014 will not be set free immediately though, as he is now being held in relation to a case pertaining to Kurdish protests in October 2014, despite not being named as a suspect in that investigation.<\/p>\n

\nHuman rights activists say the court\u2019s Thursday ruling is a tactical move to alleviate mounting pressure from the Council of Europe \u2014 a human rights organization of which Turkey is a founding member \u2014 over the high-profile case, which is still pending before the ECHR\u2019s Grand Chamber. While the ECHR stated in November 2018 that Demirtas\u2019 detention was not justified, it will not usually issue an official verdict on a case until all avenues of the relevant domestic judicial system have been exhausted.<\/p>\n

\n

\nBACK<\/span>GROUND<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n
\n
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\nSelahattin Demirtas \u2014 who has been called \u2018the Kurdish Obama\u2019 \u2014 was a robust challenger to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during Turkey\u2019s June 2015 elections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nDemirtas \u2014 who has been called \u2018the Kurdish Obama\u2019 \u2014 was a robust challenger to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during Turkey\u2019s June 2015 elections, managing to extend the HDP\u2019s traditionally limited Kurdish constituency by reaching out to liberal and left-wing Turkish voters, which resulted in the pro-Kurdish party gaining parliamentary representation for the first time.<\/p>\n

\nHowever, the charismatic leader\u2019s rapid ascent stopped in November 2016 when he was jailed.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis ruling of the Turkish top court confirmed once again the need to release Demirtas immediately. However, it is unlikely that it will happen soon under today\u2019s circumstances in the judiciary,\u201d Erdal Dogan, a human rights lawyer, told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis case is politically motivated. However, if the ruling government opts for a democratic approach to the Kurdish conflict, it will have to release Demirtas and hundreds of HDP officials. It is a matter of making choices,\u201d he continued, adding that the situation is further complicated for Ankara by the cross-border situations in Syria and Libya and its ongoing standoff with Russia.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cDemirtas should not spend one single minute behind bars but unfortunately his case is related to so many national and international dynamics (that have) to be negotiated,\u201d Dogan said.<\/p>\n

\nDemirtas has been suffering from health issues related to his heart in prison, but Turkey\u2019s recent ruling allowing the release of 90,000 prisoners to ease overcrowding in jails and protect prisoners from the COVID-19 pandemic excluded those jailed over terrorism charges, so he remained incarcerated.<\/p>\n

\nAmnesty International recently launched a campaign for the release of political prisoners in Turkey amid the pandemic, warning that their lives might be at risk highlighting its concerns about the health precautions the Ministry of Justice has put in place during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\nAndrew Gardner, senior Turkey researcher for Amnesty, told Arab News that the organization is monitoring the situation. A new report by the Human Rights Association has echoed Amnesty\u2019s concerns, saying that conditions in the prisons during the pandemic are worrying.<\/p>\n

\nThe Amnesty researcher also noted that it has long been clear that the cases against Demirtas \u2014 which Gardner described as \u201cbaseless\u201d \u2014 are politically motivated and that the government has used them to try and silence him and intimidate his followers.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe Turkish government is facing increased pressure over its policy of locking up critics \u2014 not only Demirtas, but also activist-philanthropist Osman Kavala and many others. After this ruling, the Council of Europe can further question Turkish authorities about why Demirtas is still in prison,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt is good to have this verdict, because this case was a total violation of the rights (regarding) pre-trial detention, (combined) with the pandemic that threatens people\u2019s health,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe constitutional court should be much more active in these cases. It is disappointing that it took so long to give this ruling. Demirtas should never have been imprisoned.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANKARA: The Constitutional Court of Turkey announced on Thursday night that it had ordered the release of former presidential candidate and co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples\u2019 Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas. The court ruled that Demirtas\u2019 right to liberty had been violated because his detention had exceeded \u201ca reasonable time,\u201d and ordered that compensation of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}