The Party of European Socialists calls for the immediate release of Selahattin Demirtas, the former co-chair of our associate member party HDP, who was absolved of allegations of terrorism yesterday by a court in Ankara.

PES president Sergei Stanishev said: “By keeping him in prison, Turkey is violating Selahattin’s rights as well as the political rights of the Turkish people. Like we previously said, these charges are politically motivated and their only purpose is to remove the democratic opposition. We demand that Demirtas be freed immediately.”

Yesterday, the Court in Ankara completely cleared Demirtas of the allegations, but another conviction for ‘terrorist propaganda’ still stands, although it was found to be illegal by the European Court of Human Rights in July.

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