Şehriban Aslan 

 

DİYARBAKIR - MP Çağlar Demirel and Dersim Municipality Co-Mayor Nurhayat Altun, who were detained and arrested in the operation against the HDP in 2015, have been under arrest for five years. Çağlar and Nurhayat's lawyer, Serdar Çelebi, said that they will apply to the Constitutional Court regarding a long-term trial.

 

Former Group Deputy Chairperson of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Çağlar Demirel, whose immunity was lifted in 2015, was arrested on charges of ‘’being a member of a terrorist organization’’. The decision was reversed by the 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation on the grounds of ‘’lack of procedure’’ after the seven years and six months prison sentence given to Çağlar in her case before the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court was referred to the Court of Cassation. The 16th Penal Chamber found that the case against the decision, which was also upheld by the Gaziantep Regional Courts of Justice, was not to be combined with the KCK case, in which Çağlar's trial is still continuing, contrary to the criminal procedure.

 

‘Court will make again’

 

Serdar Çelebi, who is Çağlar's lawyer, noted that the Supreme Court of Appeals has given a decision to reverse the file regarding recombine and that the case will be heard in Diyarbakır 5th Heavy Penal Court once again. Serdar said: ‘’Even though the hearing was scheduled for September, as a result of our applications to the ‘monthly arrest’ objections, it is said that the arrest continues on the basis of constant cut, copy and paste patterns. This is directly seen as a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 19 of the Constitution.

 

‘The Constitutional Court should decide as soon as possible’

 

Underlining that Çağlar's detention period exceeded a reasonable time, Serdar stated that they would therefore apply to the Constitutional Court. Serdar said that their only demand was for the Constitutional Court to comply with its own jurisprudence and pointed out that it did not comply with its own jurisprudence in the applications made on November 4, 2016. Serdar said: ‘’In all the arrests related to the time-out, a violation decision is made. As a matter of fact, we applied for HDP's previous term Co-Chair, Fiden Yüksekdağ, in February, but the Constitutional Court has not yet made a decision. Regarding all these long-term detentions exceeding a reasonable time, a violation decision should be made as soon as possible in accordance with the internal rules of the Constitution.’’

 

‘Demands are denied on simple grounds’

 

Nurhayat Altun, who was elected as the Co-Mayor of Dersim Municipality in the local elections in 2014, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the case brought against her after she was arrested together with the other Co-Mayor Mehmet Ali Bul as part of the political genocide operations on November 17, 2016. Reminding that Nurhayat has been jailed pending trial about five years, Serdar said: ‘’It is similar to Çağlar Demirel's file. Our requests for release are denied on simple grounds. The file is still in the local court, and a decision is not made on the grounds of an investigation carried out in Kocaeli. Therefore, we apply to the Constitutional Court on the grounds of long-term detention. We hope that this unlawful trial will be ended by the court.’’