UPDATES WITH DETENTION OF ANOTHER HDP MP
By Aziz Aslan
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AA) – A court in southeastern Turkey Monday ordered the release on probation of an opposition lawmaker after nearly three months in prison on terrorism-related charges, the court said.
Idris Baluken, the parliamentary group leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), still faces charges of disrupting the unity of the state and country, membership in an armed terrorist group, spreading terrorist propaganda, and taking part in unauthorized meetings and marches.
Baluken, ordered released by Diyarbakir’s 8th High Criminal Court, was among 10 of the party’s deputies arrested and remanded in custody in early November after their parliamentary immunity was lifted.
The HDP deputies, including party leaders Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas, were arrested after they failed to answer a summons to testify as part of a counter-terrorism investigation.
Following his arrest at HDP headquarters in Ankara, Baluken was taken to Bingol in eastern Turkey, where he was the first of the deputies to be remanded in custody.
The government has accused the HDP of having links to the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU.
Separately, later on Monday, police detained an HDP spokesman as part of a terror probe launched in the southeastern Diyarbakir province, said a security source.
The source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media, said Ayhan Bilgen, also a deputy for the eastern Kars province, was first arrested Sunday morning but later released after appearing in a Diyarbakir court the same day.
After the Diyarbakir public prosecutor objected to the decision to release him, police again arrested him on Monday.
Later on Monday, another HDP lawmaker, Lezgin Botan was detained over an order by Van’s 8th High Criminal Court.
Botan, HDP’s Van deputy for the eastern Van province, was accused of spreading terrorist propaganda, incitement to crime and membership in an armed terrorist group. He faces up to 40 years in prison.
On Jan. 27, a court in the Van province had issued arrest warrants for Ayhan Bilgen and Lezgin Botan as they failed to appear at their ongoing trial.
The first hearing, last month, was postponed when the two lawmakers did not appear.
