Turkey: Kurdish deputy face up to 15 years in prison

Prosecutors in Turkey indicted on Thursday a Kurdish deputy  who was arrested over alleged ties to PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party,) with up to 15 years in prison, Turkey’s state news agency Anadolu reported. 

Semra Guzel was stripped of parliamentary immunity in March and was arrested early September over photos taken eight years ago with a member of the PKK, who she was engaged to before she was elected to the Turkish Grand Assembly.

Anadolu insisted on saying “she was captured while trying to flee Turkey” despite her testimonial refusing the allegation. 

Her lawyers also lashed out at the agency saying the indictment was given to Anadolu before appearing on the official website of the ministry of justice, Mezopotamya Agency said. 

Her lawyers said earlier that she was kept in isolation in a cell since she was arrested despite her applications to move to a ward with another inmate. 

Guzel was elected to the Turkish National Assembly in 2018 as a deputy for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) from the city of Diyarbakir, with %66 of the votes in the Kurdish-majority province.