ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) announced that its website suffered a cyberattack on Wednesday, one day after the court called for Turkish authorities to immediately release jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas.
“Following the delivery of the Selahattin Demirtas v. Turkey (no. 2) judgment on 22 December, the website of the European Court of Human Rights was the subject of a large-scale cyberattack which has made it temporarily inaccessible,” read a press release from the ECHR.
“The Court strongly deplores this serious incident. The competent services are currently making every effort to remedy the situation as soon as possible,” the press release added.
Access to the ECHR’s website has since been restored.
Demirtas, the former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was detained in November 2016 along with a number of other HDP officials and parliamentarians for their alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey but classified as a terrorist organization by Ankara. He faces up to 142 years in jail for the charges brought against him.
The ECHR ruled yesterday that Turkey must “take all necessary measures to secure the applicant’s immediate release” with relation to Demirtas’ detention.
The court found “several violations” of the European Convention on Human Rights in the case of the detention of Demirtas, particularly with respect to exercising his freedom of expression.
The ruling was dismissed on Wednesday by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who accused the ECHR of "double standards" for failing to condemn PKK "violence".
With reporting by Karwan Faidhi Dri
