Deputy parliament speaker Pervin Buldan testifies in court in Turkey’s southeast

DİYARBAKIR

AA photo

Deputy Parliament Speaker and Kurdish-issue focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Istanbul lawmaker Pervin Buldan has testified in court in a case filed into her over “being a member of an armed terrorist organization” in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. 

Buldan was asked to testify in court late on June 12 as part of an investigation carried out by a heavy penal court in the eastern province of Ağrı. 

Police officers arrived in a hotel where Buldan and HDP lawmaker from the southern province of Adana, Meral Danış Beştaş, were staying and told the deputies that there was a warrant issued for Buldan.

Buldan went to the Diyarbakır Courthouse with Beştaş’s car while police vehicles escorted the deputies. 

The deputy parliament speaker gave her testimony through the voice and video informatics system (SEGBİS) and was released later on. 

The Diyarbakır Governor’s Office released a statement after the incident, saying that reports on Buldan being detained were false. 

“These reports don’t reflect the truth and no detention procedures were carried out against Buldan,” the statement said on June 12.

Beştaş, on the other hand, claimed the event constituted a detention process in legal terms.

“The police came, disclosed the warrant and we went to the courthouse with my car under police escort. This is called a detention in law. A warrant had already been issued for her,” Beştaş said, slamming the governor’s office for “making fun of the public mind.”

“What was the report that the police wanted us to sign? Why did the police officers arrive in front of the hotel room’s door? Why were the doctors brought to the courthouse? Why are we in the courthouse at this hour? Did Buldan come to visit the courthouse in the middle of the night? Don’t make fun of peoples’ minds anymore,” she wrote on her Twitter account.