Turkey sentences MP, Ocalan's niece, to 30 months in prison

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - A Turkish court in the Kurdish city of Sanliurfa sentenced opposition lawmaker Dilek Ocalan to two years and six months in prison after finding her guilty of "terrorist propaganda."

Ocalan, a member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), is the niece of the imprisoned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) founder, Abdullah Ocalan.

Kurdistan 24's Diyarbakir bureau reported that Sanliurfa's central criminal court, known in Turkey as a heavy penal court, deemed her attendance at a 2016 funeral for fallen PKK fighter Mehmet Yilmaz a crime. Ocalan was not present at the sentencing.

Prosecutors were demanding up to five years in jail for her "behavior during the funeral procession that condoned violent acts by the terrorist organization."

A speech she delivered in Kurdish while at the funeral was also presented as evidence during the trial. Her lawyers asked for a translation of the speech into Turkish by an independent translator rather than a government-paid one. The judge refused.

The same court is also trying MP Osman Baydemir for attending the same funeral, in Sanliurfa's Viransehir district, and, like Ocalan, for a speech he made while there.

His lawyers said they needed time for defense, an argument the judge approved, postponing his trial.

Ocalan's sentence was ordered to be executed immediately, meaning she could face arrest at any moment.

The conviction paves the way for her ouster from the Turkish Parliament.

Nine HDP lawmakers have already been kicked out of the Parliament as a result of various convictions, at least one of them for 'insulting' President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Editing by John J. Catherine