A new hearing in the Kobanê Trial will take place on Monday. At Friday's hearing, attention was drawn to the unlawfulness of the case.

Lawyer Çiğdem Kozan emphasized that her client Ayla Akat Ata was wiretapped illegally while she was an MP, and that the prosecutors and judges who decided to wiretap statements that did not contain criminal elements were dismissed on the grounds that they were FETO members.

The last session of the 36th hearing of the Kobanê Case, in which 108 politicians, 18 of whom are imprisoned, are under trial, was held on Friday.

Politician Ayla Akat Ata attended the trial held by Ankara 22nd High Criminal Court in the courtroom on Sincan Prison Campus. Sebahat Tuncel and Lawyers Association for Freedom (ÖHD) lawyers also attended.

Figen Yüksekdağ was also connected to the hearing via Audio and Video Information System (SEGBİS).

The court adjourned the hearing until Monday at 10 am.

The Kobanê Case

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.