Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday rejected a European Court of Human Rights' ruling that Selahattin Demirtaş -- former leader of opposition HDP -- should be released, saying Turkey was not bound by the court's decisions.
Demirtaş has been imprisoned since November 2016 over alleged links to the PKK terror group that has been waging a terror campaign against Turkish state for more than three decades.
"The decisions delivered by the ECHR do not bind us," Erdoğan was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency after a meeting of his ruling party.
"We will make our counter-attack and get this business over with," the president added, without elaborating.
Responding the reporters at the parliament, Erdoğan said, "Decisions the ECHR make are not of our concern."
Erdoğan recalled that ECHR has many rulings on terror groups and they were all against those made by Turkish courts.
"There are also so many things we can do against it [ECHR's decision]. We will do a counter move, and close the deal," said Erdoğan.
He added: "Terrorism is still continuing in Turkey and the Turkish nation is the one who pays the price."
Demirtaş had been detained during Turkey's referendum and the presidential election campaigns, which the court said "was stifling pluralism and limiting freedom of political debate".
In November 2016, Demirtas along with 12 HDP lawmakers, were arrested on terror-related charges. Demirtas remains in custody pending trial.
Around a dozen HDP lawmakers are currently in prison pending trial for terrorism-related offenses after their parliamentary immunity was lifted in May 2016.
Turkey's government has said the HDP had links to the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU.
ERDOĞAN HITS BACK AT CRITICS OF GEZI DETENTIONS
Turkey's president hit back of critics of the detention of people linked to the 2013 Gezi park protests.
Erdoğan said that 13 people recently detained have links to "the person who is in the position of financing the Gezi park protesters, and also is in prison right now."
On Nov. 17, the 13 people were detained on suspicion of financing the Gezi Park protests. Three of them were later released.
Erdoğan said that there are people in both Turkey and abroad who funded the protests, which the government has called a coup attempt.
Some circles in the Western world have criticized the detentions, he added.
In summer 2013, relatively small demonstrations in Istanbul's Gezi Park grew into a nationwide wave of protests against the government that left eight protesters and a police officer dead.
The government later said the demonstrations were an attempt to overthrow it by members of Fetullah Gulen's "parallel state" in the police and court system.
Turkey accuses the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO)-led by U.S. based Fetullah Gulen-of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
On July 15, a FETO coup attempt in Turkey left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
