{"id":6609,"date":"2021-04-15T08:04:53","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T08:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/?p=6609"},"modified":"2021-04-15T08:36:40","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T08:36:40","slug":"belaruski-pen-czentr-daluchaeczcza-da-zayavy-mizhnarodnaga-pena-i-patrabue-neadkladna-vyzvalicz-selahaczina-dzemirtasha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/2021\/04\/15\/belaruski-pen-czentr-daluchaeczcza-da-zayavy-mizhnarodnaga-pena-i-patrabue-neadkladna-vyzvalicz-selahaczina-dzemirtasha.html","title":{"rendered":"Belarusian PEN Centre joins PEN International and calls for immediate and unconditional release of Selahattin Demirta\u015f"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><b>The Turkish authorities must urgently abide by the European Court of Human Rights\u2019 <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/hudoc.echr.coe.int\/eng#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22001-207173%22%5D%7D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noindex noopener\"><b>ruling<\/b><\/a><b> of December 2020 and immediately and unconditionally release Selahattin Demirta\u015f, PEN International said today, as his trial is set to resume in Istanbul on 14 April. The writer and opposition politician has been held in pre-trial detention for over four years.<\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples\u2019 Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirta\u015f was arrested on 4 November 2016 on dubious terrorism charges. He faces up to 142 years in prison if convicted. The Turkish authorities have so far failed to implement a December 2020 ruling by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, which found his detention to be politically motivated and ordered his immediate release. The Grand Chamber was ruling on an appeal of a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pen-international.org\/news\/turkey-release-selahattin-demirtas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noindex noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">landmark judgement<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> issued by one of the Court\u2019s regular chambers in November 2018, which notably called for Demirta\u015f\u2019s immediate release. In March 2021, the Council of Europe\u2019s Committee of Ministers urged Turkey to implement the Court\u2019s rulings, which are legally binding, and to free Demirta\u015f.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2018Each day that Selahattin Demirta\u015f spends behind bars is a tragedy and a reminder of Turkey\u2019s blatant disregard for its obligations under international human rights law. The European Court of Human Rights twice ruled for Demirta\u015f\u2019s immediate release yet the Turkish authorities are shamefully ignoring the rulings. As a member of the Council of Europe, Turkey must abide by judgements of the European Court of Human Rights and free Demirta\u015f at once\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8211; said Jennifer Clement, PEN International President.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For more information about the case, please <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pen-international.org\/news\/turkey-free-selahattin-demirtas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noindex noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">click here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Turkish authorities must urgently abide by the European Court of Human Rights\u2019 ruling of December 2020 and immediately and unconditionally release Selahattin Demirta\u015f, PEN International said today, as his trial is set to resume in Istanbul on 14 April. The writer and opposition politician has been held in pre-trial detention for over four years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1,4093],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-statement","category-news","category-creative-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6609"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6614,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions\/6614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}