An arrest warrant has been issued for Diyarbakır Co-mayor Fırat Anlı, who was released from jail last week, after being arrested on terror charges last October.
The Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office filed an objection against the decision of the Diyarbakır 8th High Criminal Court to release Anlı and petitioned the Diyarbakır 9th High Criminal Court for the reversal of the lower court’s decision.
The Diyarbakır 9th High Criminal Court accepted the prosecutor’s office’s objection and issued an arrest warrant for Anlı.
Anlı and the Diyarbakır Municipality’s other co-mayor, Gültan Kışanak, were detained on Oct. 25 and arrested on Oct. 30 on charges that they had disseminated the propaganda of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), called for autonomy for Kurds and allocated municipal vehicles for the transportation of the bodies of PKK militants killed during clashes with the security forces.
Anlı was released from Elazığ Prison last Friday, where he has been incarcerated since January.
Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ along with 9 other deputies from the party are now in Turkish jails on terror charges following the revocation of their parliamentary immunity in May 2016.
Turkey has stepped up its crackdown on Kurdish politicians in recent months. Trustees have been appointed to dozens of municipalities in the country’s predominantly Kurdish Southeast, while hundreds of local Kurdish politicians and co-chairs have been arrested on terror charges. The developments have attracted widespread criticism from the region and Western countries. (SCF with turkishminute.com) July 19, 2017
