Turkey releases Kurdish party leader after months of imprisonment

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – A Turkish court decided to release the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions' Party (DBP) Kamuran Yuksek in the first hearing on Friday after five months of imprisonment.

The court in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir did not drop the charges directed against the DBP leader, though, reported Kurdistan 24 bureau there.

Yuksek will still be facing the charges of “membership to an armed terrorist organization,” punishable by a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

The other DBP co-chair Sebahat Tuncel who watched Yuksek's trial told reporters outside the court that 2500 members of her party remained in Turkish prisons before the police prevented her from making further remarks.

DBP won the municipalities of more than 100 towns and cities, including three metropolitan areas across the Kurdistan of Turkey in 2014 local elections.

The Turkish Government has seized the administration of about a third of DBP municipalities since early September, after the arrest of hundreds of party officials, city council members and dozens of mayors in the past two years.

Turkish police arrested Yuksek on the orders of Diyarbakir Public Prosecutor's Office in May 2016 after his remarks to the press supporting Kurdish people's right to self-rule.

The Ezidi Kurdish MP of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Feleknas Uca who also watched Yuksek's trial told a Kurdistan24 reporter outside the court that the DBP leader would be released after Turkish authorities take him from Diyarbakir to a prison in the Mediterranean city of Adana.

Previously, Yuksek served in prison between the years 2009 and 2014 for alleged membership in the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)-affiliated umbrella organization.

Again in Diyarbakir, another court released the award-winning Kurdish author Murat Ozyasar after a week of detention.

Renas Jiyan, the editor of the Kurdish literary magazine Çirûsk and a poet, who was arrested the same day as Ozyasar, remain in prison.

Editing by Ava Homa