The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) assessed the appeal made on May 17, 2017 for HDP’s arrested co-chairs and MPs and demanded Turkey’s defense in the matter.

The ECHR gave Turkey until October 20, 2017 for the defense in the case for HDP Co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ and MPs İdris Baluken, Besime Konca, Abdullah Zeydan, Nihat Akdoğan, Selma Irmak, Ferhat Encü, Gülser Yıldırım, Nursel Aydoğan and Çağlar Demirel.

The ECHR demanded a defense for 7 topics and inquired whether the relevant articles of the European Convention on Human Rights have been violated in the arrest of 12 MPs.

The HDP MPs had submitted individual appeals to the Constitutional Court in Turkey citing that their lawmaking activities had been hindered and their active and passive voting rights (to vote and to stand for elections) had been violated. The Constitutional Court failed to hear the case for 8 months, despite the precedent verdict for CHP MP Mustafa Balbay in 2013. As the verdict was not coming out, HDP appealed to the ECHR citing that the lifting of the parliamentary immunities and the arrests themselves were in violation of the convention. The Constitutional Court has still not issued a verdict, while the ECHR has demanded a defense from Turkey for the appealing HDP MPs.

Meanwhile, HDP Muş MP Burcu Çelik’s appeal to the ECHR against her arrest on April 17, 2017 has not been assessed yet.

The delay in the verdict from Turkey’s Constitutional Court, and due to the ECHR case not having been completed, Figen Yüksekdağ’s and Nursel Aydoğan’s statuses as Members of Parliament had been suspended.