Mr Demirtaş was charged with insulting the president. Mr Demirtaş's words to Mr Devlet Bahçeli was considered as an insult to Mr Erdoğan (!).
Mr Demirtaş's statement is below:
I haven’t been able to understand why the President’s lawyer has filed a criminal complaint against me. It would have made sense if Devlet Bahçeli’s (MHP leader) lawyer had filed one. The speech contains not a single sentence that directly addresses the President. I only reminded Devlet Bahçeli of his own words. After all, Devlet Bahçeli did, throughout an entire election campaign, call the President a thief. “We are cowards if we do not hold these thieves to account,” was one of his election campaign slogans. All I did was remind Bahçeli about that after the election. To put it in the clearest manner, I said: “You both call the President a thief, and then you go and have a good time at the Palace of the person you accused of being a thief”.
This speech of mine contains no direct accusation targeting the President. However, it is also interesting to point out that, neither the Prosecutor’s Office, nor the President’s lawyer have filed for prosecution against Bahçeli –who called the President a thief in the first place. So, according to law, Bahçeli has the right to call the President a thief, and I am prohibited from doing the same thing?
This constitutes a crystal clear case of political discrimination. Prosecutors also saw no reason to prosecute against Bahçeli when he insulted those who voted for HDP – 6 million citizens - by accusing them of being dishonourable. Despite our criminal complaint, no case was filed.
In conclusion, I have many speeches that involve criticism of the President. However, regarding this particular speech, it is not me who should be prosecuted, but Devlet Bahçeli: Because it was a sentence of his that I referred to.
Selahattin Demirtaş
8 December 2016