Former BDP deputy Ayla Akat Ata arrested over ‘terrorist propaganda’ charges
DİYARBAKIR
The former Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy Ayla Akat Ata, who once represented the southeastern province of Batman, was arrested over “terrorist propaganda charges on Feb. 20.
Ata was initially detained by police in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Feb. 19.
The “terrorist propaganda” investigation against her came about due to a speech she made in the district of Göle in 2015.
Ata was also arrested on Oct. 30, 2016 in relation to another investigation set in motion by the public prosecutor in Diyarbakır and was imprisoned until May 4, 2017. At the end of the ongoing trial, she could face a sentence of 95 years in jail.
The now dissolved BDP was a forerunner of the Kurdish-issue focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, the former co-chairs of the HDP, are currently behind bars over similar charges, while the lawmaker status of seven HDP MPs has been revoked.
