* Photo: MA
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Jailed Kurdish politician Leyla Güven appeared before the judge at the second hearing of the court case filed against her on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" yesterday (February 9).
Held in the Elazığ Women's Closed Prison in eastern Turkey, Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-Chair Leyla Güven is facing a lawsuit at the Diyarbakır 9th High Criminal Court over the speeches that she made at the demonstrations and events that she attended.
As reported by Mezopotamya Agency (MA), at the second hearing of the case yesterday, it turned out that another court case was filed against the politician on the same charge. The two files have been merged.
Stripped of her MP status and arrested, DTK Co-Chair Leyla Güven was previously sentenced to 22 years, 3 months in prison in the main trial and this prison sentence was upheld by the court of appeals.
Neither indictment nor evidence sent
Leyla Güven attended yesterday's hearing from prison via video conference by using the Audio and Visual Information System (SEGBİS). Her lawyer Serdar Çelebi was present in the courtroom.
The presiding judge announced that the request for recusal raised by the defendant's lawyer at the previous hearing has been rejected by the upper court, the Diyarbakır 10th High Criminal Court.
The judge also said that the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office issued a new indictment against Güven on charge of "terror propaganda" and this indictment was sent to the court with a request for merging the two files. The court has ruled for their merging, the judge said.
Asked to make a defense as to the indictment, Leyla Güven wanted the indictment to be sent to her so that she could examine it.
Güven also said that the report prepared by the expert [in Turkish] regarding the audio records of the speeches that she made in Kurdish is full of translation errors and requested that the screenshots of the online media posts considered to be criminal evidence be sent to her.
Saying that he agreed with the requests of his client, lawyer Serdar Çelebi requested additional time to make defense.
The presiding judge ruled that all requests should be accepted. The next hearing will be held on April 11, 2022.
Solitary confinement as a punishment
On the other side, HDP Hakkari MP Sait Dede has submitted a Parliamentary question regarding the incident where Leyla Güven, the dismissed Hakkari MP of the party, was given a disciplinary penalty after she had been threatened and insulted by a male warden in the place where she had been taken for vaccination. According to HDP's Sait Dede, Leyla Güven would be put in solitary confinement for 11 days as a punishment on the grounds that she had "insulted or threatened a public official".
In his Parliamentary question addressed to Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ, Dede has underlined that "the disciplinary punishment of solitary confinement will also lead to a postponement of supervised release."
Asking the Minister a series of questions in this context, Dede has questioned whether this disciplinary punishment complies with international convention and laws and whether any investigation has been launched against the warden who insulted and threatened Güven.
About Leyla Güven
Living in Germany for a long time, she worked in the women's organization of the People's Democracy Party (HADEP) in 1994.
In the local elections in 2004, she was elected as the Adana Küçük Dikili Mayor; in 2009, she was elected as the Viranşehir Mayor.
As part of the operation against the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), Leyla Güven was arrested in December 2009. Following an imprisonment for five years, she was released in 2014. In the KCK main trial, she was sentenced to 6 years, 3 months in prison.
In the Parliamentary elections in June 2015, Leyla Güven was elected as the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) 25th Term Şanlıurfa MP and entered the Parliament. In the Parliamentary elections in 2018, she was elected as the HDP 27th Term Hakkari MP.
While she was in prison as part of the KCK investigation, she went on a hunger strike, demanding that the isolation of imprisoned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan be lifted.
Her prison sentence of 6 years, 3 months in the KCK main trial was upheld by the Court of Cassation while she was the HDP Hakkari MP. With her finalized prison sentence read out at the General Assembly of the Parliament, she was stripped of her MP status on June 4, 2020. While she was arrested shortly afterwards, she was released on June 9, 2020.
On December 21, 2020, she was sentenced to 22 years, 3 months in prison on charge of "leading an organization", arrested and sent to Elazığ Type E Prison in eastern Turkey. (AS/SD)
