Up to 25 years in prison sought for HDP deputy Beştaş

DIYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

A prosecutor on Feb. 13 asked to sentence Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Meral Danış Beştaş up to 25 years in prison over charges of “being a member of a terrorist organization,” “inciting others to commit crime” and “provoking the public to attend illegal meetings and demonstrations.”

HDP Adana lawmaker Beştaş was arrested on Jan. 30, 2017 as part of the investigation carried out by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, and was later released on on April 21, 2017 on conditions of trial without arrest.

The prosecutor reminded Beştaş’s call for people to take to the streets in October 2014, when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attacked the Syrian town of Kobane.

Adding that the same call was made from the official Twitter account of the HDP and Beştaş was a member of the central executive committee of the party at that time, the prosecutor accused Beştaş of acting in accordance with the instructions from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The prosecutor also said Beştaş was among the protestors in the Sur district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır in September 2015, where a curfew was declared at that time and asked Beştaş to be sentenced be-tween 11 and 25 years in prison.

Nine HDP lawmakers are currently in jail.