The defence team of former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has filed an application with a court in Ankara for their client's release from custody. The lawyers argue that the 46-year-old politician's life is in danger because of insufficient measures in Turkish prisons to contain the coronavirus. Demirtaş suffers from pulmonary hypertension and sleep apnea syndrome. He thus belongs to a risk group for Covid-19 pandemic. According to the Turkish Minister of Health, Fahrettin Koca, at least 69 percent of corona death victims (as of April 1) were hypertension patients.

Selahattin Demirtaş was imprisoned along with numerous other politicians of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the course of the political campaign of annihilation against the Kurdish opposition in Turkey in November 2016 and has since been held in the Edirne high-security prison in western Turkey. At the end of November he suffered a fainting spell in his cell and lost consciousness. First aid measures were carried out at the time by his cell mate Abdullah Zeydan, who was awakened by the politician's fall and informed the prison staff. Despite a doctor's recommendation, Demirtaş was not transferred to hospital for seven days.