A Turkish court has blocked the probation of Selçuk Mızraklı, the ousted co-mayor of Diyarbakır, overturning an earlier ruling by an enforcement judge that would have allowed his early release, the İlke TV news website reported.
On December 17 the Edirne 1st High Criminal Court revoked a December 9 decision by the enforcement judge who had approved a petition by Mızraklı’s lawyers. The lawyers had challenged Edirne Prison’s Administration and Observation Board’s rejection of Mızraklı’s request for release on probation.
Enforcement judges, who operate within high criminal courts, oversee issues related to the execution of sentences, including reviewing prison administration decisions and ruling on inmates’ applications or complaints. Their decisions can be appealed to the relevant high criminal court.
The judge’s ruling was referred to the Edirne criminal court by the prosecutor. With the court upholding the board’s decision, Mızraklı’s release remains blocked.
Mızraklı applied for probation on September 4, as he had less than one year of his sentence remaining. The prison board rejected his application on September 8 and again on November 10 after a renewed request on the grounds that he had not declared that he had “disassociated himself from a terrorist organization.”
Under the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) inmates who have completed three-fourths of their sentence and have less than one year remaining are eligible for release on probation.
The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld Mızraklı’s sentence of nine years, four months on conviction of membership in a terrorist organization in October 2024, following a retrial in November 2023. The same court had previously overturned the sentence handed down in March 2020, ruling that the allegations against him had not been sufficiently investigated.
Investigations into Kurdish politicians have been carried out on accusations of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Founded in the late 1970s by Abdullah Öcalan, the PKK launched an armed insurgency in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives. The group is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, including the EU and the US.
Mızraklı was removed from office by the interior ministry in August 2019 on the grounds of an ongoing “terrorism-related” investigation, like dozens of other elected Kurdish mayors.
He was transferred in 2022 to Edirne Prison, where he has been sharing a cell with Selahattin Demirtaş, the former pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairperson who has been imprisoned since November 2016.
