ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Selahattin Demirtas, a veteran Kurdish politician, on Tuesday was handed another term in prison of nearly a year and a half by a Turkish court over remarks deemed “insulting” toward President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a series of speeches. 

The final trial of a case against Demirtas, former co-chair of Turkey's Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) concluded on Tuesday, seeing the jailed Kurdish leader sentenced in absentia by a Mersin court to one year, five months, and 15 days in prison.

The charges pressed by the state against Demirtas involved "insulting the president" in a string of speeches in Diyarbakir and Mersin, according to Turkish media.

In 2016, Turkey launched a crackdown against the pro-Kurdish HDP, the predecessor of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), arresting the party's co-chairs and several other lawmakers, on accusations of having ties with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

Demirtas has been held in the Edirne F-Type high security prison since November 2016, on terrorism-related charges after his parliamentary immunity was lifted. However, he and his supporters deny the charges, and international courts have called for his release.

DEM Party co-chair Tuncer Bahirhan on Tuesday slammed the ruling, saying “we do not recognize this decision.”

“Such court decisions create major obstacles to peacebuilding and undermine the hope for peace by exacerbating injustices,” Bakirhan said on X.

In November, leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahceli said that releasing Demirtas “will be beneficial to Turkey,” as Ankara navigates a complicated peace process with its longtime foe, the PKK. 

Demirtas's lawyers attempted a motion of recusal of the judge, arguing that the principle of fair defense had been violated. The court, however, rejected the motion, according to local media, citing security reasons for denying the Kurdish leader's request to attend the session.