European court says Turkey holding Kurdish politician too long without trial

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday urged Turkey to swiftly process the legal case of the ex-head of the pro-Kurdish opposition, saying his pre-trial detention had gone on longer than could be justified.

Selahattin Demirtas, former co-chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and one of Turkey’s best known politicians, was sentenced in September to more than four years in jail on terrorism charges related to a speech he gave in 2013.

Having already spent nearly two years in prison awaiting trial for those alleged offences, he had effectively already served out the prison term handed down by the Turkish court.

But Demirtas remains in prison facing several more terrorism-related charges, mostly for other speeches he gave, that could see him sentenced to up to 142 years in jail if found guilty.

“The Court found that the judicial authorities had extended Mr Demirtas’ detention on grounds that could not be regarded as ‘sufficient’ to justify its duration,” the Strasbourg-based ECHR said in a statement.

The ECHR ruled that Ankara “was to take all necessary measures to put an end to the applicant’s pre-trial detention.”