Selahattin Demirtas, former chairman of the pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP, has been in custody since November 2016. Numerous processes are running against him. Now a Turkish court has surprisingly ordered his release. However, he is not yet on the loose with it: Because of an earlier verdict, he must first remain in prison.
The former leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Party of Peoples (HDP) was released on condition that he be tried by a court in Sincan near Ankara on Monday, his lawyer Ramazan Demir told AFP. He was threatened with 142 years in prison for leading a terrorist organization, terror propaganda and incitement to crime.
Demirtas was convicted last December in another lawsuit for four years and eight months for "terrorist propaganda".
Montag's ruling was preceded by a hearing before the European Court of Human Rights on 18 September, which concerns the lawfulness of his pre-trial detention in the Sincan trial. The Strasbourg court last November called on Turkey to immediately terminate the pre-trial detention. However, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey is not bound by the judgment.
