“I was imprisoned because of accusations that I was running away from the judiciary. But for the last 13 months, the judiciary has been running away from me,” Demirtas wrote on his official Twitter account via his lawyers on Dec. 7.

The comments of the co-chair came after the first hearing of his case, which took place in the Ankara 19th High Criminal Court without his attendance, Hurriyet daily reported.

Demirtas, who is currently being held in Edirne Prison in the northwestern province of Edirne, had repeatedly demanded to attend the hearing in person. The court rejected his demands citing “security reasons.”

After Demirtas refused to participate in the first hearing of his case via an audio-visual system, his lawyers on Dec. 7 demanded that the issue be referred to the Constitutional Court.

Demirtas and nine other HDP lawmakers were arrested on Nov. 4, 2016 on the grounds that they failed to show up to give their testimony to prosecutors after they were accused of terror charges based on alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Reporter’s code: 50101