Trial of Turkey’s opposition leader starts without him in court
A court ruled that Selahattin Demirtas, the leader of Turkey’s second-biggest opposition party, could not attend his first hearing in person, increasing concerns his trial may not be fair.
Turkish opposition leader Selahattin Demirtas has spent more than a year in prison in pre-trial detention on terrorism charges, but on his first day in court, he was nowhere to be seen.
Judges ruled that Demirtas, the head of parliament’s third-biggest party, could not participate in person in a trial closely watched by rights group and Western governments, but instead would join by video link. Demirtas said the measure violated his rights and refused to participate in Thursday’s hearing.
It was a dramatic start to a trial that thrusts into the spotlight Turkey’s rights record during a state of emergency imposed in the wake of a military coup attempt in July 2016.
Demirtas, a former human rights lawyer, faces 142 years in prison for alleged links to the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade war for autonomy in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast that has killed some 40,000 people. He denies the charges, and his party says evidence in an “omnibus” indictment relies on what he has said in his capacity as a politician, including criticism of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
