Turkish high court approves prison sentence for pro-Kurdish leader

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Turkey’s High Court of Cassation on Wednesday approved a 10-months prison sentence for the Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-chair Figen Yuksekdag who was charged with terror-related accusations.

Yuksekdag and seven other people were sentenced to prison by a local court in the southern city of Adana in August for “disseminating propaganda for a terror group” for their 2012 attendance at a funeral held for a leftist militant killed in Istanbul.

Reacting to the approval of the sentence, Yuksekdag tweeted “we will not surrender, we will become the trouble for, the end of the putschist rule.”

The HDP Co-chair’s remark likened the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to the military coup plotters who tried to overthrow it on July 15.

On Thursday, an HDP statement on its website slammed the approval of a prison sentence for its leader as a “political decision whose examples have repeatedly led to Turkey’s condemnation by the European Court of Human Rights.”

TURKISH CUSTOMS CONFISCATES KURDISH MP’S PASSPORT

Meanwhile, at Istanbul Ataturk Airport, Turkish customs officers on Thursday seized the passport of the HDP Member of Parliament Ferhat Encu who represents a constituency from Sirnak Province.

Encu took to Twitter where he announced he learned of a court travel ban on him only after coming to the airport to catch a flight to the Belgian capital of Brussels.

“We do not know the justification [for the ban]. There was no ongoing trial of mine. The fact that the ban has been decided today demonstrates there was an instruction,” said Encu accusing the judiciary of getting orders from political authorities.

Encu is a relative of 11 of the 34 victims of a December 2011 Turkish airstrike, known as the Roboski Massacre, on a group of villagers who were smuggling goods between Turkey and the Kurdistan Region.

The travel ban on Encu came after the same decision by a court on Yuksekdag over the weekend.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany