HDP to appeal ECHR

HDP appeals to ECHR concerning the lifting of the parliamentary immunity, since the internal authorizes to be appealed are exhausted. 

55 HDP MPs have 511 dossiers against them and the party had appealed to the Constitutional Court on June for stay of execution and annulment of the regulation. After the appeal was denied in a short time, HDP has speed up the process of appeal to ECHR.

As part of this process, individual appeals made for each MP having dossiers. The files of appeal, including those of co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, have started to be sent to Strasbourg.

In the petition sent to ECHR, it is pointed out that the lifting of parliamentary immunity was done in an unlawful way: “In this process, the constitutional amendment was made by the order of the president, instead of following the procedure stated in the Constitutional Law. The prosecution offices all around the country considered the word of the president as orders and started to work at high pressure for issuing indictments against the dissident politicians, especially against HDP members.” It is also emphasized that all the accusations are related to the articles that limit the freedom of expression, freedom of organization, right to assembly and demonstration and ECHR recurrently convicted Turkey for violating these rights and freedoms.

The concerns about judicial independence is also emphasized: “Public prosecution offices and other judicial bodies made discrimination among MPs and the procedure wasn't impartial and just. Acting impartially and justly is impossible anyway, given the current atmosphere in Turkey. There are numerous independent observation reports indicating that the judiciary has been under the influence of politics.”