Demirtas has been in prison since November 2016 on charges of membership to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed organisation that has been waging an armed insurgency on Turkish soil for over three decades, as well as he has been tried over insulting the state and the Turkish President.
An Ankara court on September 2 ruled the conditional release of the top pro-Kurdish politician over charges of insulting the president, as the trial continues in the main case against him, in which prosecutors are seeking a sentence of up to 142 years.
Demirtas remained imprisoned due to a previously-approved sentence of four years and eight months last September over comments he made in a 2013 speech.
But Demirtas could be released on parole soon considering his time served, lawyer Aydin Erdogan said. The lawyers of jailed Kurdish politician on September 12 applied for his release from jail.
"According to the current law in force in Turkey, he has served his time. There are some bureaucratic procedures and delays. There are also reasons (of delay) beyond our power and matters that we do not really know. But at any moment, we have the chance to see Demirtas out and free. There are no more obstacles now," Rudaw quoted Erdogan as saying.
Following the 2015 collapse of a peace process between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and the PKK, Ankara has intensified a crackdown on the HDP, which it accuses of harbouring sympathies and acting in the interests of the PKK. The HDP denies such links.
In November, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) urged Turkey to release the former HDP leader, but a Turkish court rejected the ruling.
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