ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The spouse of jailed Kurdish politician Salahattin Demirtas was sentenced to over two and half years on Wednesday for allegedly submitting a false medical report when seeking unpaid leave from her teaching position in 2015, her lawyers said on Thursday.
"Our client Basak Demirtas was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison together with Dr. RB, who prepared the report, by Diyarbakir 6th High Criminal Court on November 10, 2021, based on a lawsuit filed on 3 March 2018 on the allegation that she received a false health report,” read a statement from her lawyers, published by the opposition news outlet Cumhuriyet.
The court accused her of faking the date on a medical document from a test she took in 2015 after experiencing “severe health issues” following a miscarriage, according to her defence team. She received her test on December 11, but the date on the copy which was sent to her school was December 14, added lawyers who claim the latter date was written incorrectly.
Basak Demirtas, who quit her teaching job last year after 20 years of service to be able to visit her husband in jail, recently was targeted by Turkish media and politicians after she said in a televised interview that her husband was not sorry for what he did during his tenure as the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). He has been accused of having a role in the death of 108 people during 2014 protests across Kurdish-majority areas in Turkey in support of the Kurdish city of Kobane in Syria after it was besieged by the Islamic State (ISIS).
Selahattin Demirtas was jailed on November 4, 2016 for alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). His trial over his links to the Kobane protests continues.
Basak Demirtas’ lawyers said “it is sufficient to examine the polyclinic registry of the Family Health Center to reveal this error,” but blamed the court for not including the original copy of the test in her files.
“It is clear unlawfulness and a great injustice that Basak Demirtas was sentenced as a result of such a trial,“ claimed the lawyers, adding that they will continue their fight to win her case.
The HDP said in a statement that the sentence given to the teacher is “a revengeful attack.”
“We will defeat these attacks by fighting together. Basak Demirtas is not alone, there is a great women's struggle behind her!” it added.
The former HDP co-chair warned last month against inciting violence against his family.
“Let the lynching mobs, who targeted my family on screens last night, know that if a single member of my family is harmed you are responsible,” he said in a tweet.
