The controversial indictment of 108 people, including Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, former co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), over their involvement in the 2014 street protests was approved on Tuesday by Ankara Heavy Penal Court. Demirtas and Yuksekdag, who face trial on several other charges, have been behind bars for over four years.
The 3,530-page-long indictment accused the defendants of homicide and of undermining state authority and territorial integrity, seeking life sentences for 38 of them.
The first trial will be held on April 25.
In October 2014, large crowds flooded the streets in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast region to protest against Ankara’s inaction in defending Syrians during Daesh’s siege of Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, just across the border.
When the demonstrations became violent, 37 people were killed, and Ankara blamed the HDP for triggering the violence.
This latest indictment is seen as a new attempt by the government to restrain the HDP and further corner it over its links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
However, the imprisonment of Demirtas has been harshly criticized by European institutions such as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which on Dec. 22 called for Demirtas’ release.
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