06/06/2023 (Agence Europe) – In a ruling handed down on 6 June, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey for failing to respect the confidentiality of interviews between Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, former co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and their lawyers. Imprisoned in November 2016 following the imposition of the state of emergency decided after the failed coup d’état in July, the applicants were required to make audio and visual recordings of their exchanges with their lawyers. The Court found that “the domestic courts had not demonstrated the existence of exceptional circumstances that could justify derogating from the core principle of the confidentiality of the applicants’ meetings with their lawyers for the purposes of Article 5 § 4 of the Convention (right to a speedy review of the lawfulness of detention)”. (VL)