Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Altan Tan, who was detained in Diyarbakır, released by a Diyarbakır court on Saturday. The prominent Kurdish politician announced his detention on Twitter on Saturday afternoon Turkish time. Tan was released by the court on judicial probation on Saturday night. Meanwhile, HDP deputies Adana Meral Danış Beştaş and Hüda Kaya who were detained by police on Friday, were also released on Saturday.
Beştaş wrote from her Twitter account on Friday night that police officers had come to her home. Following her tweet HDP Diyarbakır deputy Ziya Pir also wrote on Twitter, saying that Kaya and Beştaş had been detained but adding that police did not detain another HDP deputy, Pervin Buldan, in an effort to correct rumors.
HDP spokesperson Ayhan Bilgen tweeted that Kaya was handcuffed in Afyon for a court case in Diyarbakır. Kaya will be taken to Diyarbakır via İzmir, said the report. Kaya was released following being briefly detained by the police on Dec. 8.
Kaya’s detention comes after a court in Van province on Friday issued arrest warrants for HDP deputies Lezgin Botan and Adem Geveri. The court based the decision on the deputies’ absence from hearings in a trial in which they are accused of membership in a terrorist organization and terrorist propaganda. The two Kurdish deputies are also banned from travelling abroad.
On Wednesday, four more Kurdish deputies were briefly detained. 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 Turkish courts earlier in late 2016 arrested 11 HDP deputies, including the party’s Co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ.
