A Diyarbakır court has sentenced the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Diuyarbakır deputy Ziya Sir to 11 months and 20 days in prison for criticizing the prosecutor that instructed the police raid against the Kurdish press and institutions in 2015.
Diyarbakır 7th Penal Court of First Instance has decided the sentence for HDP deport Pir who was facing a probe for “insulting” the prosecutor who ordered the detention of 32 people, including journalists, during raids on Dicle news agency (DİHA), Kurdish daily Azadiya Welat, Kurdish institution KURDÎ-DER and Aram Publishing in Diyarbakır province on September 28, 2015.
The court sentenced Pir for “insulting a public official” because he called the prosecutor “candidate as a palace jester.” However, the court ruled to suspended the sentence for 5 years and dismiss the case on condition that he does not deliberately commit a similar crime during this period of time.
Meanwhile, Turkish police forces have also conducted simultaneous house raids in the southern province of Osmaniye on Wednesday and detained HDP members Kamuran Babrak, Abdullah Turhan and Birsen Karataş. The detainees were taken to Osmaniye Police Department.
Also, on Tuesday, prison sentence given by a local court to Nahide Ormanlı, a 60-year-old Kurdish woman who is a member of the Peace Mothers Council from Silopi district of Şırnak province was upheld by Turkey’s Court of Appeal.
Ormanlı was reportedly arrested in 2011 and sentenced to prison for 4 years and 8 months for “committing a crime on behalf of a terrorist organization.” Following two and a half years in jail, she was released pending trial in 2014. After the supreme court upheld the local court’s decision Ormanlı was arrested on Tuesday. She was transferred to Şırnak T Type Prison where she will serve the rest of her sentence, which is 15 months.
It was reported by pro-Kurdish media outlets that 4 of Ormanlı’s children are in Turkish prisons for their political activities as 2 others are the members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK.) It was also reported that another child of Ormanlı was killed while fighting against ISIL in Kobane in 2015.
Turkey has stepped up its crackdown on Kurdish politicians in recent months. 10 HDP deputies, including party’s co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, are kept in Turkish prisons, trustees have been appointed to dozens of municipalities in the country’s predominantly Kurdish Southeast, while hundreds of local Kurdish politicians have been arrested on terror charges.
