Former deputy detained on charges of ‘terrorist propaganda’

DİYARBAKIR

A former deputy representing the southeastern province of Batman, Ayla Akat Ata, was detained by police on Feb. 19 within the scope of an investigation conducted by the office of the chief prosecutor in the eastern province of Ardahan.

Ata, a former lawmaker of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), a forerunner of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was taken under custody by the anti-terror branch of the police in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, Doğan News Agency reported.

The investigation over “terrorist propaganda” in Ardahan was about a speech she made in the district of Göle in 2015, it added.

Ata, was arrested on Oct. 30, 2016 in relation to another investigation carried out by the public prosecutor in Diyarbakır and was imprisoned until May 4, 2017. At the end of the ongoing trial, she might face a sentence of 95 years in jail.

Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, the former co-chairs of the HDP, Turkey’s Kurdish-issue focused party, are currently behind bars over similar charges, while the MP status of seven HDP MPs has been revoked.