ISTANBUL (AP) — A lawyer representing the jailed former leader of a Kurdish party in Turkey is urging authorities to let her client go to hospital for thorough examinations after he suffered chest pains and lost consciousness last week.
Selahattin Demirtas, 46, has been in prison for more than three years, facing terror charges.
Lawyer Aygul Demirtas — who is also the politician’s sister — tweeted Monday that Demirtas lost consciousness for some time. He received an electrocardiogram but has still not been sent to a fully equipped hospital despite the prison doctor’s recommendation, she said.
The politician’s Peoples’ Democratic Party, Turkey’s second-largest opposition party, called on the government to explain and demanded he be taken to the hospital.
Demirtas faces up to 142 years in jail. He denies the charges.