European Court of Human Rights: Turkey guilty in the case of former HDP Co-Chairs Demirtaş and Yüksekdağ 

ANKARA — The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has declared that the Turkish regime violated European Convention on Human Rights’ Article 5, Clause 4, in the case of former Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ.

The ECHR revealed restrictions imposed by the Turkish regime on Yüksekdağ and Demirtaş.

Yuksekdağ and Demirtas went to the ECHR after their request was rejected by the Constitutional Court of the Turkish regime, which claimed that the practices carried out within the framework of the state of emergency have not yet resulted in any human rights violations.

“The Court considered that the domestic courts had not demonstrated the existence of exceptional circumstances that could justify derogating from the core principle of the confidentiality of the applicants’ meetings with their lawyers, and that the breach of lawyer-client privilege had deprived the applicants of effective assistance from their lawyers for the purposes of Article 5, Clause 4 of the Convention,” the EHCR stated.

The ECHR held that Turkey was to pay Demirtaş and Yüksekdağ 5,500 euros each in respect of non-pecuniary damage and 2,500 euros jointly in respect of costs and expenses.

The Turkish regime had imposed restrictions on Yüksekdağ and Demirtaş’ meeting with their lawyers for 3 months, under the emergency law imposed after the alleged coup attempt in 2016.