February 17, 2017•Update: February 17, 2017
By Aziz Aslan and Ekrem Payan
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey
A court in southeastern Turkey on Friday issued an arrest warrant against an opposition lawmaker released from prison last month.
Idris Baluken, the parliamentary group leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was among at least a dozen of the party’s lawmakers arrested in November after their parliamentary immunity was lifted.
He was released on bail on Jan. 30 after nearly three months in prison on terrorism-related charges.
The 1st High Criminal Court in Diyarbakir on Friday accepted a prosecution appeal against Baluken's release.
He faces aggravated life imprisonment on charges of disrupting the unity of the state's territorial integrity, membership of an armed terrorist group, spreading terrorist propaganda and taking part in unauthorized meetings and marches.
The government has accused the HDP of having links to the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU.
Meanwhile, another HDP lawmaker, Ferhat Encu, was taken back into custody in southeastern Sirnak province on Friday, a police official said.
Encu was released pending trial Wednesday following his arrest in early November on suspicion of being a member of a terrorist organization.
HDP deputies, including party leaders Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas, were arrested in November after they failed to answer summonses to testify as part of a counter-terrorism investigation.
Demirtas and Yuksekdag remain in custody alongside several other deputies.
