Two more HDP lawmakers stripped of statuses in Turkish Parliament

ANKARA

Two more lawmakers from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were stripped of their deputy statuses on April 19. 

Turkey’s Şanlıurfa lawmaker Osman Baydemir and Hakkari lawmaker Selma Irmak lost their seats after the final verdict of legal cases against them was read aloud in the Turkish Parliament.

The total number of HDP lawmakers who were stripped of their seats increased to 11.

Irmak was sentenced 10 years in jail for being a member of “an armed terror group” and “spreading terror propaganda.”

Baydemir was also sentenced nearly one and a half years in jail for verbally assaulting a police officer.

The HDP deputies who have lost seats in the Turkish Parliament are Figen Yüksekdağ, Nursel Aydoğan, Faysal Sarıyıldız, Tuğba Hezer Öztürk, Besime Konca, Leyla Zana, Fethat Encü, İbrahim Ayhan, Ahmet Yıldırım, Osman Baydemir, and Selma Irmak.

Back in Feb. 27, HDP lawmakers Ahmet Yıldırım and İbrahim Ayhan were stripped of their parliamentary status.

Yıldırım was sentenced to one year and two months in prison in June 2017 for “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a speech after the April 2017 referendum.

With the latest procedure, Yıldırım became the first MP in parliamentary history to be stripped of their status for “insulting the president.”

Ayhan, meanwhile, was sentenced to one year and three months in jail in July 2017 for “making propaganda for a terrorist organization” over his social media posts and for attending the funerals of outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members.