Ahmet Onder was sentenced to eight years and nine months in prison in Hakkari province’s criminal court in the Kurdish-populated southeast Turkey during a trial of people accused of links to the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), Firat News Agency (ANF) reported. KCK is an umbrella group of a number of parties, including the PKK, which is deemed a terrorist organization by Ankara.
Onder died four years ago due to cancer. He was the head of communications in the People's Democratic Party (HDP), a pro-Kurdish party that top Turkish officials have accused of being the political wing of the PKK, leading to the arrests of scores of their politicians - including former co-chairs and parliamentarians and members - in recent years on terror charges. HDP has denied any links to the PKK.
The PKK established the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), which soon became a target of the state, in 2007. Turkish prosecutors launched a campaign dubbed the KCK Case, arresting and otherwise reprimanding anyone believed to be affiliated with the group.
Turkey has detained and sentenced scores of Kurdish politicians, activists and journalists in the last decade for their alleged links to the KCK.
In a case last year, 68 out of 79 people tried were found guilty on charges of membership in a terrorist organization for their alleged links to KCK.
The recent case put 30 people on trial, including Ramziya Yashar from HDP who was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison over alleged “membership in a terrorist organization,” local news reports said.
Yashar was the co-mayor of Yuksekova district, arrested in October 2019 along with a number of other HDP mayors in the Kurdish-majority areas during police raids.
