Constitutional Court tells HDP’s Beştaş that planting trees in Fis was a crime

The Constitutional Court (AYM) announced its decision regarding the application filed by Meral Danış Beştaş, deputy chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on 4 February 2014, against a lawsuit against her while she was a member of the Central Executive Board of the Democratic Society Party (DTP).

In the lawsuit filed against Beştaş with the allegation of “committing a crime on behalf of a terrorist organization and making propaganda for an illegal organization” due to her participation in the tree planting ceremony held in the village of Fis, in Lice district of Amed within the scope of the festival organized by Lice Municipality on 28 November 2009, the Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court ruled that “there was no reason to punished Beştaş for committing a crime on behalf of a terrorist organization not being a member of it” but it also ruled to “postpone the prosecution for making propaganda for a terrorist organization.”

Beştaş applied to the Constitutional Court, stating that the decision to postpone the prosecution against her was a violation of her freedom of expression.

The Constitutional Court, which decided on Beştaş’s application 8 years later, decided that freedom of expression was not violated.