Fugitive lawmaker from Turkey meets EU commissioner

BRUSSELS

One of the fugitive Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers met EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn on Tuesday.

Faysal Sariyildiz, who was among 15 HDP deputies who earlier this month had arrest warrants issued against them on terrorism charges, met the commissioner for neighborhood policy and enlargement at EU offices in Brussels.

Cameras were banned from the meeting although footage was allowed of Sariyildiz meeting other EU officials before Hahn’s arrival.

Sariyildiz was accompanied by Eyup Doru, the HDP's Europe representative, and another man. No details of the discussions were released.

Sariyildiz, a deputy for Sirnak in southeast Turkey, is one of two HDP lawmakers who were in Europe when 13 others, including the party’s co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, were arrested. Ten are currently remanded in prison awaiting trial on terror-related charges.

Sariyildiz and the HDP deputy for Van in eastern Turkey, Tugba Hezer Ozturk, who is also wanted, met the leader of the European Parliament’s Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group on Monday.

Group President Gianni Pittella later shared a photograph of the Brussels meeting on his Twitter account.

Doru, who is subject to a “red notice” arrest warrant from Turkey for terror offenses, was also at Monday’s meeting. Doru was a member of the PKK terrorist organization for five years and was on Interpol’s wanted list in 2007. He was released following his arrest in Spain in 2009.

The HDP deputies were arrested after failing to answer a court summons linked to a counter-terrorism investigation.

Their arrests were made possible after some lawmakers’ parliamentary immunity was lifted earlier this year. Most HDP politicians face charges of spreading terrorist propaganda through speeches.

*Reporting by Hasan Esen; Writing by Satuk Bugra Kutlugun