European court urges Turkey to free pro-Kurdish leader

ANKARA: The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday called on Turkey to release pro-Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas, saying his detention since 2016 on terror charges was aimed at "stifling pluralism".

Demirtas, one of two former co-leaders of the leftist pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was arrested in November 2016 over his alleged links to Kurdish militants.

At the time of his arrest he was a member of parliament.

The court in the French city of Strasbourg said it accepted that Demirtas had been arrested on "reasonable suspicion" of committing a crime, but said the reasons given for keeping him behind bars were not "sufficient" and constituted "an unjustified interference with the free expression of the opinion of the people".

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It found that the extension of his detention, particularly during a referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers and later a presidential election, were aimed at "stifling pluralism and limiting freedom of political debate, which was at the very core of the concept of a democratic society".

"The court therefore held, unanimously, that the respondent state was to take all necessary measures to put an end to the applicant’s pre-trial detention," it added.

The ECHR hears cases of alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights of which Turkey is a signatory.