Erdogan blasts European court's ruling on jailed Kurdish leader
The European Court of Human Rights said the imprisonment of Selahattin Demirtas had violated his basic rights.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday took aim at Europe’s top human rights court, which called on Turkey this week to immediately release from prison a prominent Kurdish politician accused of supporting terrorism.
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that Turkey’s four-year-long imprisonment of Selahattin Demirtas, the former co-leader of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party, had violated the politician’s basic rights and was “cover for an ulterior political purpose.”
Demirtas has remained in pretrial detention since he and other members of his party were arrested in November 2016 on terror-related charges. After unsuccessful appeals in the Turkish courts, he filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights in February 2017.
In addition to calling for his release, the European court ordered that Turkey pay Demirtas $73,540 in damages. As a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, Turkey is legally obligated to abide by the Strasbourg-based court’s decision but has ignored rulings in past cases.
