HDP MP Leyla Zana released after detention in Turkey’s Diyarbakır

DİYARBAKIR

Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Ağrı deputy Leyla Zana was released after being detained by police on Feb. 8 in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Police in Diyarbakır detained Zana as a part of an investigation carried out by the Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor’s Office on charges of “being a member of armed terror organization.”

Zana’s detention came after she refused to testify to prosecutors and was ordered to be brought forcibly by police. She was later transferred to the courthouse following her proceedings at the police headquarters.
A Diyarbakır court later ordered her release on probation.

Zana had served 10 years in prison for speaking Kurdish while taking her parliamentary oath in 1991. She was eventually released in 2004 and again became a lawmaker after the June 2011 election.

On Feb. 7, HDP Şanlıurfa deputy Dilek Öcalan was also released after her brief detention at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport upon an arrest warrant on terror charges. 

A lawsuit had been filed on Öcalan in a Şanlıurfa court on charges of “engaging terror propaganda” with a prison sentence of up to five years demand.

The Şanlıurfa 5th High Criminal Court had later issued an arrest warrant for Öcalan and she was detained at Atatürk Airport on Feb. 7.

The Bakırköy 1st High Criminal Court later ordered Öcalan’s release.

In November 2016, 13 HDP lawmakers were detained and 10 of them, including co-leaders Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, were arrested pending trial on terrorism-related charges.      
  
The lawmakers face prosecution under anti-terrorism legislation after their parliamentary immunity was lifted.