HDP denounces 22-year prison sentence for its dismissed deputy

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has denounced the prison sentence given to its former MP Leyla Güven, saying that the decision showed the courts act in line with the government's interests.

Güven, who co-chairs the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), was sentenced to 22 years and 3 months in prison for several offenses, including "establishing and leading a terrorist organization," today (December 21) in a case concerning the DTK.

She was also stripped of MP status in June because of another prison sentence she had received.

Releasing a written statement after the court verdict, the HDP said, "This hostile decision is not only against Leyla Güven, not only against the DTK, but also against all the Kurds and the entire opposition."

"Leyla Güven is a person of struggle who devoted her life to peace, she is a monument of honor," it said. "Neither Leyla Güven nor we will give up the struggle because of punishments and arrests."

The DTK is a civil and democratic institution that took part in the efforts for the democratization of the country, the HDP said. "With this decision, the government has once again shown that it will insist on a deadlock.

"Criminalizing an organization like DTK with such methods is flogging a dead horse. In recent history, this was tried dozens of times and the result was always the same.

"Every attack against the Kurds' struggle for rights and peace got a response from the people. We don't recognize this unlawful and hostile punishment."

(EMK/VK)