A Turkish court released three suspects on Friday in their first hearing in a case against an attack on the funeral of Hatun Tuğluk, mother of jailed Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Aysel Tuğluk on September 14. The release decision was given by A local court in Ankara’s Gölbaşı district.
The body of Hatun Tuğluk, who passed away on Tuesday, was taken to İncek Cemetery in Ankara’s Batıkent district on Wednesday but was removed from the grave after an attack by an ultranationalist group during the funeral in Ankara.
The HDP’s Aysel Tuğluk attended the funeral with special permission from Kandıra Prison in Kocaeli province, where she is incarcerated. Some 50 ultranationalists who had gathered in the cemetery attacked the funeral, saying: “We have martyrs in this cemetery. We will not allow terrorists to be buried here.”
Following the attack, the body of Hatun Tuğluk was removed from the grave and later buried in Tunceli province.
Turkish authorities detained 23 people after examining security camera footage but later released 19 of them, the NTV website reported on Saturday. The police are also searching for another six people allegedly involvement in the attack.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu was center of criticism after taking a souvenir photo with an assailant at a police station in Ankara following the incident.
Soylu went to the same station with the Ankara governor and chief of police to offer his condolences to HDP deputy Tuğluk and to be briefed on the attack.
Assailant Murat Alp had his photo taken with Soylu at the station and posted it on Facebook.
Commenting on the incident on Facebook, Soylu said he took the photo with Alp thinking that he was a neighbor who went to the police station after learning of his arrival.
