MLSA - The seventh hearing of the trial against former Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Figen Yüksekdağ and seven former HDP deputies was postponed without session. They are charged for their visit to Silvan district of the southeastern and predominantly Kurdish province of Diyarbakır in 2015, during the imposition of curfews when Turkish security forces were conducting operations in the region.
The defendants, including former HDP Co-Chair Figen Yüksekdağ, former HDP Parliamentary Group Deputy Chairs İdris Baluken and Çağlar Demirel, and deputies Altan Tan, Ahmet Yıldırım, Ertuğrul Kürkçü, Mehmet Ali Aslan, and Saadet Becerikli, face charges of "resisting to prevent duty," "insulting a public officer due to his duty," and "insulting the president." None of the accused attended the hearing, and their lawyers cited missing documents as the reason for their absence.
The court did not start the proceedings and postponed the next hearing to May 9, 2024, without issuing an interim decision.
Background:
The indictment prepared by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office includes complaints from Osman Gündüz, the then Deputy Director of Silvan District Police, "other police officers," President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, and then Interior Minister Efkan Ala. The indictment presents as evidence the words allegedly spoken by the deputies during a police intervention in Silvan, where a curfew was declared on November 12, 2015, a press statement by Figen Yüksekdağ, and footage of the subsequent scuffle following the police intervention.
The Diyarbakır 8th Magistrates' Court, accepting the indictment against the deputies, ruled that the alleged crimes were committed in the Silvan district, thus the competent court to handle the case was the Silvan Magistrates' Court. The file was sent to the Silvan Magistrates' Court due to a jurisdictional decision.
During the proceedings in the Silvan Magistrates' Court, the court decided to halt the trial against Hüda Kaya and Feleknas Uca, who were re-elected as deputies, separating their files and sending them to the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM). In 2020, the court declared lack of jurisdiction, citing the State of Emergency Decree Law No. 694 published in the Official Gazette, which transferred the authority to investigate and prosecute deputies to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and respective high criminal courts, and sent the case to the competent 33rd High Criminal Court in Ankara.
In 2021, the Court of Cassation resolved the jurisdictional dispute, deciding that the case should be heard in the Silvan Magistrates' Court.
