Kurdish lawmaker in Turkey sentenced to 30 months in prison

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – A Turkish court in the Kurdish city of Batman sentenced the Democratic Peoples’ Party (HDP) lawmaker Besime Konca to two years and six months in prison on the grounds of “terrorist” propaganda.

Konca, who the police arrested on Monday for the third time since last year, represents the neighboring Siirt Province.

She rejected the charges of a local prosecutor and invoked her right to immunity from prosecution as an MP, Kurdistan24’s Diyarbakir bureau reported.

In May 2016, the Turkish Parliament passed a bill proposed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) that stripped lawmakers of immunity.

The main opposition the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the minority block of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) supported the bill that until now has disproportionately targeted the HDP.

Among the accusations against Konca were attendance in Batman at the funeral of a high-ranking Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighter who Turkish government forces killed in March 2016 in the central Sur district of Diyarbakir.

The historic Sur was the scene of a five-month-long battle between PKK and Turkey which imposed a curfew as the decades-long conflict erupted again after the 2013-2015 ceasefire during the peace talks.

Konca is the fourth HDP lawmaker the Turkish judiciary has sentenced to imprisonment.

Two of those convicted, the former co-chair of HDP Figen Yuksekdag and Nursel Aydogan, have also lost their seats at the Parliament.

The crackdown on HDP has seen its Co-leader Selahattin Demirtas and 11 other lawmakers imprisoned.

Meral Danis Bestas, another HDP lawmaker and a member of the Turkish Parliament’s constitutional committee, accused the government of involvement in the judicial process.

In a press release on the party’s website, she alleged Turkish courts were not independent, adding a special prosecutor was assigned to pursue the case against Konca.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany