Who fears Demirtaş candidacy?

Setting the hearing against HDP former co-chair on 8 June is no coincidence. But lawyer rules out any sentence by that time.

Silivri Court asked on Monday a 5 years prison sentence for hostage former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş and Ankara HDP MP Sırrı Süreyya Önder. 

The Court then postponed the next hearing of the trial to 8 June. The date choice was clearly not a coincidence. Indeed, Demirtaş is expected to run as the HDP candidate to the presidency of the Republic on the 24 June early elections. If the Court would rule on 8 June, clearly the verdict could put Demirtaş's candidacy in danger. 

Speaking after the hearing, Demirtaş's lawyer, Mahsuni Karaman, said that the trial is not legal, but a "game".

‘No verdict on 8 June’

Speaking about the postponement of the next hearing to 8 June, Lawyer Karaman had this to say:

“Rest assured that it is impossible to take a decision on this case on 8 June. You can rule out this. This file has actually nothing to do with trying someone according to legal standard. This file is walking on the shadow of a political decision which has one sole aim: to hit Mr. Demirtaş. Otherwise this file could have already been merged with the other main file opened against Mr. Demirtaş in the Ankara 19th High Criminal Court. They have not merged the files for this purpose, to affect him and his moves. The decision to postpone the hearing to 8 June serves the same purpose”.

The lawyer added: “So we will be waiting until 8 June. The deliberation has actually not been communicated to us, yet. On 8 June we will also ask for a period of time in order to counter this deliberation. Therefore, I would say that a final decision on Mr. Demirtaş and Mr. Önder can be expected by September, at the earliest. Of course, this is without taking into account any appeal procedure”.