Former Turkish leftist leader sentenced to another 1.5 years in prison for insulting Erdogan

A court in Turkey has sentenced former pro-Kurdish leftist leader Selahattin Demirtas, in prison for nine years on other charges, to one and a half years in prison this Tuesday for “insulting the president” of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during several political speeches made a decade ago. The sentence refers to statements made by Demirtas in two rallies held between 2013 and 2016 in the provinces of Mersin and Diyarbakir, and adds to the several convictions for political speeches, some under review, that already weigh on the former leftist leader. Demirtas was imprisoned in November 2016 and sentenced in 2024 to 42 years in prison for “incitement to terrorism”, despite several rulings by the European Court of Human Rights that consider the trial a violation of his rights and have demanded his release.

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The politician, candidate for the presidency of Turkey in 2015 and leader of the pro-Kurdish leftist party HDP (now DEM) until 2018, is serving a sentence in Edirne prison in the far west of Turkey and did not attend today’s trial, held in Mersin. His defense recalled that the Turkish Supreme Court had already overturned a 3.5-year prison sentence for “insulting the president” during a political speech in Istanbul in 2015, and requested that the current trial be merged with that one, now under review. The court rejected both this request and another to postpone the session and convicted Demirtas for the speeches in Mersin and Diyarbakir, in a case that in 2024 had been merged with other accusations for rallies in Ankara and Mardin, not addressed today.