Court issues arrest warrant for HDP MP İdris Baluken

DİYARBAKIR

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A court in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Feb. 17 issued an arrest warrant for Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır deputy İdris Baluken following an appeal against his release in the case filed as part of a terror investigation, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

The prosecutor’s office previously appealed the court decision on Baluken’s release pending trial on Jan. 30 to a higher court.

After reviewing the appeal, the Diyarbakır 1st court of serious crimes on Feb. 17 issued an arrest warrant for Baluken.

Baluken faces an aggravated life sentence and up to 23 years in prison on four separate charges, namely “disrupting the unity of the state and the country,” “being a member of armed terror organization,” “engaging terror organization propaganda” and “refusing to disperse despite warning in illegal demonstration and marches.”

In the first hearing of the case, the Diyarbakır 8th court of serious crimes ordered his release, nearly three months after his arrest on terror charges on Nov. 4, 2016 along with other party deputies including co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ who still remain in prison.

Separately, police detained another HDP deputy, Ferhat Encü, at the Şerafettin Elçi Airport in the southeastern province of Şırnak on Feb. 17, two days after his release from prison in the northwestern province of Kocaeli, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Encü was arrested on Nov. 4, 2016 as a part of a terror investigation, up to 22 years in prison on charges of “being a member of armed terror organization” and “engaging in terror organization propaganda.”

At present a total of 11 HDP figures, including Demirtaş and Yüksekdağ, remain in prison and face hundreds of years in jail.