HDP seeks release of jailed MP in case similar to freed CHP lawmaker
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) launched a social media campaign on Friday, demanding the release of jailed MP, Leyla Guven.
The party argues that the principle behind a decision on Thursday to release opposition CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoglu from jail applies to their member as well.
Berberoglu was jailed in 2017 on espionage charges after publishing a story in Cumhuriyet newspaper that claimed to depict Turkey’s intelligence service (MIT) supplying weapons to ISIS in Syria.
He spent 16 months in prison in “solitary confinement,” he told reporters outside the prison on Thursday.
He was serving five years and ten months in jail, reduced from 25 years, but was released until the end of his parliamentary term after his lawyers argued Berberoglu was given immunity via his election in June.
HDP, which gained 67 seats in the election, was encouraged by this development, and intensified its efforts for Guven’s release.
“The court shall issue judicial rules as per the principle of neutrality and independence, not as per the demands and needs of the government. Leyla Guven shall be released just like Berberoglu,” the party tweeted on Friday.
Guven was arrested in January, accused of terror activities based on statements and social media posts about Turkey’s military operation against Kurdish forces in Afrin, northern Syria.
The prosecutor demanded more than 31 years jail on the charge of “establishing and managing an armed terrorist organization” and terror propaganda, according to Hurriyet Daily News.
“As per Article 83 of the constitution, Leyla Guven has the immunity granted to the other 598 deputies and it is no different from theirs,” said HDP.
Article 83 stipulates: “A deputy who is alleged to have committed an offence before or after election shall not be detained, interrogated, arrested or tried unless the Assembly decides otherwise… The execution of a criminal sentence imposed on a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey either before or after his election shall be suspended until he ceases to be a member; the statute of limitations does not apply during the term of membership.”
Guven is co-chair of the Democratic Society Party that ran in the election on a joint list with HDP. She was elected in Hakkari province.
A large number of HDP’s general members and supporters as well as several of its MPs and two of its former co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, are imprisoned, largely on charge of ties to the PKK.
The party argues that the principle behind a decision on Thursday to release opposition CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoglu from jail applies to their member as well.
Berberoglu was jailed in 2017 on espionage charges after publishing a story in Cumhuriyet newspaper that claimed to depict Turkey’s intelligence service (MIT) supplying weapons to ISIS in Syria.
He spent 16 months in prison in “solitary confinement,” he told reporters outside the prison on Thursday.
He was serving five years and ten months in jail, reduced from 25 years, but was released until the end of his parliamentary term after his lawyers argued Berberoglu was given immunity via his election in June.
HDP, which gained 67 seats in the election, was encouraged by this development, and intensified its efforts for Guven’s release.
“The court shall issue judicial rules as per the principle of neutrality and independence, not as per the demands and needs of the government. Leyla Guven shall be released just like Berberoglu,” the party tweeted on Friday.
Guven was arrested in January, accused of terror activities based on statements and social media posts about Turkey’s military operation against Kurdish forces in Afrin, northern Syria.
The prosecutor demanded more than 31 years jail on the charge of “establishing and managing an armed terrorist organization” and terror propaganda, according to Hurriyet Daily News.
“As per Article 83 of the constitution, Leyla Guven has the immunity granted to the other 598 deputies and it is no different from theirs,” said HDP.
Article 83 stipulates: “A deputy who is alleged to have committed an offence before or after election shall not be detained, interrogated, arrested or tried unless the Assembly decides otherwise… The execution of a criminal sentence imposed on a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey either before or after his election shall be suspended until he ceases to be a member; the statute of limitations does not apply during the term of membership.”
Guven is co-chair of the Democratic Society Party that ran in the election on a joint list with HDP. She was elected in Hakkari province.
A large number of HDP’s general members and supporters as well as several of its MPs and two of its former co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, are imprisoned, largely on charge of ties to the PKK.