Demirtaş’s lawyers to sue Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu over insults on Twitter

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The lawyers of former Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş have announced that they will file a criminal complaint against Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu after the minister targeted the renowned Kurdish politician on Twitter.

“Demirtaş whom Soylu attempted to insult and threaten is not just anyone. He is a person who received millions of votes both as the HDP co-chair and (former) presidential candidate of the HDP and represents millions of people,” the lawyers said.

Earlier this week, Demirtaş released a message of condemnation for an attack that targeted a police residence in the southern Mersin province. In a tweet, Demirtaş said that he will continue to object every kind of violence and will be persistent in democratic politics. Afterwards, Soylu quoted Demirtaş’s tweet and referred to the renowned politician as a “murderer” and “the perpetrator of October 6-8.”

Soylu went further with his insults and verbal attacks, by tweeting: “You (referring to Demirtaş) are so disgusting and vile that you are even acquitting the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), your co-perpetrator. Because the most powerful partnership is the partnership of crime.”

In the face of Soylu’s comments, Demirtaş’s lawyers said that the minister’s “insults and threats against Demirtaş who condemned violence explicitly constitute a crime.”

“Süleyman Soylu who is using the comfort of the authority and domain provided by his office and his party, is through these illegal approaches explicitly intervening the judicial process of our client whose trial still continues,” Demirtaş’s lawyers said.

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