Ruling of release for former HDP MP Abdullah Zeydan

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The Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court has ruled for the release of jailed politician Abdullah Zeydan, who was taken into custody and arrested as part of the operation against the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) on November 4, 2016 and sentenced to 8 years in prison.

After the 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation overturned the local court ruling, former HDP Hakkari MP Abdullah Zeydan stood retrial today (January 6). The court has ruled for his release from prison.

Held in the Edirne Type F Prison in northwestern Turkey for 62 months, Abdullah Zeydan, staying in the same ward with jailed former HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş, is expected to be released this evening.

What happened?

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) former Hakkari MP Abdullah Zeydan was taken into custody and arrested as part of the simultaneous operations against the HDP Co-Chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ and HDP MPs on November 4, 2016. Arrested along with 12 others, he was charged with "propagandizing for a terrorist organization", "praising the crime and the criminal", "organizing unlawful meetings and demonstrations" and "being a member of a terrorist organization".

While the indictment sought 20 years in prison for Zeydan, the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court, having accepted the indictment, ruled that Zeydan should be sentenced to 5 years in prison for "aiding the organization" and to 3 years, 1 month, 15 days in prison for "terror propaganda". He was sentenced to 8 years, 1 month, 15 days in prison in total.

The 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation overturned his verdict on May 26, 2021 and Zeydan stood retrial.

About Abdullah Zeydan

Born in Yüksekova in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Hakkari on March 13, 1972, he graduated from the International American University's Department of Architecture.

At the general elections on June 7, 2015, his brother Rüstem Zeydan was elected an MP from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) while he himself was elected the Hakkari MP of the HDP. His father Mustafa Zeydan was also a former AKP MP. (HA/SD)