Opposition chief imprisoned for 42 years in Turkey
Date
5/20/2024 8:45:38 AM
(MENAFN) Selahattin Demirtas, the leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition, has been sentenced to 42 years in prison by a Turkish court for his involvement in inciting deadly protests related to the Syrian conflict. The court also handed down prison sentences to over a dozen of his Political allies.
Demirtas faced 47 charges, including conspiracy, incitement of violence, disrupting state unity, and propagandizing on behalf of a terrorist organization, according to Turkish media. At 51, Demirtas will likely spend the rest of his life in prison unless his appeals are successful.
The sentencing is part of the larger Kobane Trial, involving 108 individuals charged over the 2014 protests in response to the siege of the Syrian city of Kobane by Islamic State (IS) militants. Demirtas accused Turkish forces, who were engaged in cross-border conflicts with Kurdish fighters, of standing by as IS besieged Kobane and preventing Kurds from escaping.
As the leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Demirtas called for protests in Kurdish-dominated regions of southern Turkey. These protests escalated into violence, resulting in 37 deaths and hundreds of injuries. Just two months before these events, Demirtas had finished third in Turkey’s presidential election. He ran for president again in 2018, conducting his campaign from prison.
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