[4] The DTP submitted their written defense in June 2008, arguing that 129 out of 141 evidences provided by the prosecution should be viewed in light of freedom of expression.
[12] After the DTP suggested an autonomy in Southeast Anatolia in order to find a solution to the Kurdish Turkish conflict, the state prosecutor pressured the Court of Cassation to ban the party in early November 2009.
[14] On 11 December 2009 the Court of Cassation under the presidency of Haşim Kılıç banned the party with eleven votes, thus making it a unanimous decision.
[15] Kılıç reasoned that there was no difference between the PKK and the DTP and that nowhere in the world had a terrorist organization the right to express itself freely.
[15] Among the notable politicians targeted with the political ban were the party co-Chairs Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tugluk,[1] and Nurettin Demirtas, Hüseyin Kalkan, Leyla Zana, Musa Farisoğulları, and Selim Sadak.
[17] In 2016 the ECHR ruled that the speeches and actions by the DTP politicians were not seen as support of Abdullah Öcalan or the Kurdistan Workers' Parties even though the co-presidents of the DTP refused to call the PKK a terrorist organization[21] and ordered Turkey to pay a monetary compensation of €30,000 to each of the two co-chairs.