ISTANBUL, Jan 6, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Jailed Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas, whose release has been ordered by a top European court, was on Tuesday handed further jail time for insulting Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his lawyer said.

Demirtas -- a once prominent and charismatic leader within Turkey's Kurdish movement -- was arrested in 2016 at the height of his political career and has been jailed on a string of "terror-related" charges.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has repeatedly demanded his release, issuing a binding ruling in November that has been ignored by Turkey.

Tuesday's ruling saw the 52-year-old, who is being held at Edirne prison in northwestern Turkey, sentenced to one year, five months and 15 days of jail time, his lawyer Ozgur Ozbek told AFP.

Ozbek said the case merged several charges of insulting the president relating to speeches made at least a decade ago, but the court denied his legal team more time to prepare, and rushed to reach a verdict.

"The reason the court made such a quick decision was because it was concerned about statute of limitations. However, making a decision based on this reasoning before the case is complete is not legally correct," Ozbek said, pledging to appeal.

Demirtas was not present at the hearing after his request to attend was denied by the judge on "security" grounds, BirGun newspaper reported.

It is not the first time Demirtas has been convicted for insulting the president: in 2021, he was handed three and a half years in jail for criticising the government's handling of an incident in which the Turkish airforce shot down a Russian military jet over the Syrian border in 2015.

Despite years behind bars, Demirtas still commands fierce loyalty for his outspoken support of the Kurdish minority and is seen by Western governments as a political prisoner jailed after helping briefly break Erdogan's grip on parliament.