Turkey: HDP co-leader receives 1-year jail term

By Muhammed Enes Can and Hanife Sevinc

ANKARA

The co-leader of Turkey’s opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Figen Yuksekdag, was sentenced to one year prison on terrorism charges, judicial sources said on Tuesday.

According to an unnamed judicial source, Yuksekdag was sentenced for "making propaganda for a terrorist organization".

Yuksekdag was also removed from her seat in the Turkish parliament after a court upheld her initial conviction on Sept. 22, 2016 on terrorism charges.

She also became ineligible for party-political membership after the court upheld the sentence in accordance with Turkey’s constitution, the sources, who asked not to be named, said.

Yuksekdag had been elected as a lawmaker for the eastern province of Van in November 2015.

She was detained in November 2016 along with 13 other HDP lawmakers on terrorism-related charges.

Ten of them, including the party’s other co-leader, Selahattin Demirtas, remain in custody pending trial.

The lawmakers began facing prosecution under anti-terrorism legislation after their parliamentary immunity was lifted in March 2016.

Turkey’s government accuses the HDP of being linked to the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU.