Turkey: Kurdish deputy subjected to isolation in jail

Semra Guzel, Diyarbakir deputy in the Turkish Grand Assembly (TBMM), has been kept in isolation since she was arrested over "terror charges" on 2 September, Mezopotamya News Agency (MA) reported.

Guzel’s immunity was lifted in early March in the context of some photos taken in 2014 showing her with a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who she was engaged to before she was elected to the parliament.

Her lawyer Veysi Eski told MA after he visited her in prison that she formally applied three times to the prison administration to stay with an inmate who has been jailed over the same charges, and that the administration responded negatively in an informal reply.

Eski also noted that Guzel did not have access to a radio or TV in her cell, and that she was experiencing some difficulties in coping with the isolation imposed upon her.

Guzel was elected to the TBMM in 2018 as Diyarbakir deputy for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who received 66% of the votes in the Kurdish-majority province.