Demirtaş questions missing $128 billion during Kobane trial

2021-04-26 20:21:50


	 

	ANKARA - Lawyers protesting the judge for refusing the defendants right to speak, once again left the court room. Selahattin Demirtaş showed a paper which he wrote, "Where is the 128 billion dolars?"

	The trial of 108 HDP members over the 2014 Kobane protests began on April 26 in the capital Ankara. Former HDP co-chair Demirtaş, who connected to the hearing via the video-conferencing system SEGBİS, was at one point seen holding a paper that read "Where is 128 billion dollars?" in a reference to the missing reserves of $128 billion from the Central Bank.

	Ankara 22nd High Criminal Court on April 26 opened the trial of dozens of members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic People Party (HDP), including its former co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, over protests which broke out during an ISIS assault on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane in 2014.

	Thirty-seven people died in the protests, which were triggered by accusations that Turkey's army stood by as the jihadists besieged Kobane, a border town in plain view of Turkey.

	The 108 defendants are charged with 37 counts of homicide and disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state. While Ankara accuses the HDP of inciting violence, the HDP says that it was doing everything it can to prevent bloodshed via being in contact with government officials.