HDP MP Dilek Öcalan Sentenced to 2 Years, 6 Months in Prison

Click to read the article in Turkish/Kurdish

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Urfa MP Dilek Öcalan has been sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison on charge of propagandizing for a terrorist organization.

Öcalan was facing 5 years in prison on charge of “propagandizing for a terrorist organization by acting in a way to justify the terrorist organizations’ methods that include violence, threat and constraint” for having attended funeral of Mehmet Yılmaz, who was murdered by law enforcers, on February 23, 2016 in Viranşehir, Urfa.

Şanlıurfa 5th Heavy Penal Court didn’t defer the sentence.

Öcalan was detained at the airport in İstanbul on February 7, 2017, and then released after being deposed at Bakırköy Courthouse.

About Dilek Öcalan

Dilek Öcalan was born in Halfeti, Urfa on October 3, 1987. She graduated from Department of Tourism and Travel Management.

Öcalan is from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) who currently serves as a Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Şanlıurfa since 7 June 2015. She is the niece of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) 

She is a Parliamentary Women and Men Equality of Opportunity Commission member. (ÇT/TK)