Selahattin Demirtaş, the arrested co-chair HDP, has requested his release from jail in a petition written to the Eighth Heavy Penal Court in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, Hurriyet reports.
Demirtaş, who is currently jailed in the northwestern province of Edirne, stated in the petition that he was arrested with "an exaggerated and non-proportional raid aimed at creating a political sensation."
"We have no doubt that the [arrests of HDP lawmakers] are being directed from a center," he said, noting that 31 summaries of proceedings were prepared for him and 11 of the prosecutors who prepared them had themselves been arrested for being members of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), believed to have been behind Turkey’s failed July 2016 coup attempt.
"My indictment was increased to 501 pages and the sentence being sought for me was determined as 142 years in order to create a negative perception in the public. They wanted to create the impression that my arrest was necessary," Demirtaş added.