Demirtaş refutes court’s claims

Imprisoned former HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtas refuted the allegations against him one by one in his defense during the hearing.

The hearing of the case imprisoned former HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) Co-chair Selahattin Demirtas is on remand for continues in the Ankara High Penal Court No.19.

Demirtas attended the hearing through the video conference system SEGBIS and made his defense regarding the summaries of proceedings in the second part of his defense.

“IT TURNS OUT THERE WAS NO CONFIDENTIAL WITNESS”

Highlights from Demirtas’ defense are as follows:

“32 summaries of proceedings have been turned into one case. Almost all of them are about press statements, rallies, television speeches and declarations. Other than these talks and press statements, there are 3 pieces of evidence to argue a direct link to the organization. It has been claimed that I have illegal ties with the organization, on 3 pieces of evidence. These 3 pieces of evidence are currently being investigated by both you, and our lawyers. A confidential witness named Mercek (“Lens”) gave a deposition and alleged that the “organization” gave the orders for the speeches Selahattin Demirtas and Ahmet Turk gave in Kurdish in the Parliament. I tried to tell you in my first defense, there are serious confidential evidence in this case. I say this as I know myself. The witness may speak lies, they may have a right to do that. But I haven’t told a single lie during this hearing.

“BALUKEN AND YUKSEKDAG’S CASES ARE ALSO FULL OF TRAPS”

The police service, who have failed to send one piece of evidence that is i my favor to the court in one full year, continue to send in whatever piece of evidence they can find with my name on it but are not related to my case. The prosecution has started, police centers in Mus, Bingol and Diyarbakir to send every file with the word “Demirtas” in it after staying up all night in the archives at night. There is a special Demitas Desk in the police force. This desk works in a special way, and the evidence has nothing to do with our case. We tell them, “You send 4 or 5 articles about Ikram Ersoz, send in this piece of evidence”, but they refuse to do that. All 3 allegations for organic ties to terrorist organizations are lies and traps. Baluken’s, Yuksekdag’s and all our friends’ cases are also full of traps. You need to press charges against this fabricated evidence. Now, look at what they say as a reason for the pardon, they say there is a Cemaat (Gülenists) trap in question. Figen Yuksekdag’s, Idris Baluken’s and all our other friends’ cases are also full of traps.

I repeat my defense regarding the October 6-8 incidents. This can not be connected with the cases of violence in any way shape or form. The one truly responsible for the incidents is the government.

Despite our calls to live together in Turkey, while the ceasefire was still in effect, our party was attacked in 116 locations. You who burned our party offices for 2 days under the guise of “terrorism”, we already knew how low you were before the June 7 elections. Was there violence then too? Everybody has a right to peaceful protests, people have a right to protest.”