Kobanê Case, a political trial

The 27th hearing in the Kobanê Case was held in Ankara.

ANF
ANKARA
Sunday, 6 Aug 2023, 08:30

The 27th hearing of the Kobanê Case was held in Ankara earlier this week.

The Kobanê Case was filed in 2020 against 108 people, including the HDP’s former co-chairs, Mr Selahattin Demirtaş and Ms Figen Yüksekdağ, current co-chair Ms Pervin Buldan, several current and former HDP deputies and mayors, and all the members of the HDP’s Central Executive Board of 2014.

This case was launched as a counter move by the Turkish government just two weeks after the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights made its final judgment demanding the immediate release of Selahattin Demirtaş. The indictment in the Kobanê Case is based on a Twitter message posted by the HDP on 6 October 2014. This called for democratic protests in solidarity with the people of Kobanê, the Kurdish town in Northern Syria that was fighting against the attacks of ISIS, and also against Turkey’s embargo on the town. The prosecutor is calling for all the defendants to be given aggravated life sentences (without parole) 38 times for the crimes of “destroying the unity of the state and the integrity of the country” and “premeditated murder” of the people who lost their lives in the Kobanê protests. Seventeen politicians are currently being held in pre-trial detention for this case.

The Kobanê case is closely linked with the closure case filed against the HDP, for which it serves as a pretext. In the closure case, the prosecution is mainly based on the alleged role and responsibility of the HDP in the murders that occurred during the Kobanê protests in 2014. We should stress that the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR has already examined these allegations in the case of Selahattin Demirtaş and concluded that neither Demirtaş nor the HDP had any responsibility for the murders.

Green Left Party co-spokesperson Ibrahim Akın said about the Kobanê Case that it is a "political conspiracy case" and underlined the attacks against Kobanê and the resistance put forward at that time.

Akın said: "International law has actually said that the statements made at the time of the invasion of Kobane were democratic expressions of opinion. This trial is illegal and unlawful. It is the result of the hostile policy of the palace regime. Our friends are not those prosecuted. Thanks to their defense, they are in fact openly prosecuting this unlawful trial. In other words, they are judging the AKP regime, the AKP authoritarian fascist regime.”

Akin said: "This case is a case made up for the closure of the HDP, as shown by the fact that it was opened 6 years after the alleged crime. Our friends have been in prison for almost 3 years. Keeping them in prison will do nothing but expose Turkey for what it is, a brutal regime. We are trying to resist. We will continue to seek our rights, establish justice, and fight for justice for everyone.