Osman Baydemir graduated from the Law Faculty at Dicle University in Diyarbakır. In 1995 he became the chair of the Diyarbakır branch of the independent Human Rights Association. Between 1995 and 2002 he also was a board member and became vice-president of the association. In February 1999 he became one of the first lawyers who volunteered to defend Abdullah Öcalan. In 2001 he became a founding member of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey. At the general elections in 2002, he was the candidate of the Democratic People's Party, but the party failed to reach the 10% election threshold. In 2003, Baydemir spent 6 months in the United States, to improve his English. In 2004, he was elected mayor of Diyarbakır. As Mayor of Diyarbakır he became a member of the World Federation of United Cities for which he toured several capitals in world. He also held speeches about the difficulties Kurds face in Turkey to the European Parliament. In May 2005 he married Reyhan Yalçındağ, the deputy chair of the Human Rights Association in Turkey. On 23 April 2006 their son Mirzanyar was born.
Charges and threats
As a human rights activist and as a politician, Osman Baydemir has been subjected to persecution on various levels. According to a report of Amnesty International of 12 February 2004 there were 200 court cases against him for his human rights activities. The daily Radikal reported on 11 July 2006 that during the last two years a total of 129 investigations against him had been conducted. Osman Baydemir has received numerous threats. In June 2001 Amnesty International issued an urgent action on his behalf. After the assassination of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January 2007 Osman Baydemir was among several people who received death threats. Recent court cases against Osman Baydemir include:
In May 2006 Osman Baydemir was charged with an illegal act by providing an ambulance of the municipality for the transport of a corpse. In September 2006 Osman Baydemir was acquitted.
Osman Baydemir and 55 other mayors of the DTP Party were indicted because in December 2005 they signed a petition to the Danish Prime MinisterAnders Fogh Rasmussen urging him not to close the Kurdish television station Roj TV. They were charged with supporting the PKK. The trial started in September 2006. In April 2007 the prosecutor asked for sentences of 15 years' imprisonment for 52 mayors.
He was prosecuted for violating a Turkish law prohibiting the use of letters not in the Turkish alphabet when he sent out a New Year's greeting in Kurdish which included the letter "W". On 19 April 2007, Diyarbakır Peace Court No. 2 dropped the charges since the Ministry of Justice had not permitted that such a case be heard.
In October 2017 Baydemir got sentenced to 1 year 5 months and 15 days of imprisonment for insulting an "on-duty government employee" after he called three police officers "fascists and low-lives".
On 10 December 2018 Ahval news agency reported he was sentenced to 18 month of prison for violating the law of demonstations and meetings.
