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dpa
Istanbul
Pro-Kurdish politician Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu was detained early on Sunday after about 100 police officers entered the Turkish parliament building and took him into custody while he was still in his pyjamas and slippers, his party said.
Gergerlioglu, a well-known human rights advocate and an outspoken critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, had been staging a protest in parliament for the past five days.
The sit-in began on Wednesday, when the Turkish parliament stripped him of his seat, citing a final jail sentence against him over alleged terrorism ties.
But Gergerlioglu, a member of the the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said he would not leave the building until the Constitutional Court weighed in on his case.
The politician had been preparing for morning prayers on Sunday when the officers arrived, the HDP said.
“Let me do my prayers and change first, then we’ll go,” he was said to have told the
police.
But the officers refused and he was taken away.
Turkish news agency DHA reported that an investigation has now been launched against Gergerlioglu for the unlawful assumption of public office.
According to the report, he is accused of unlawfully staying on parliament grounds even after losing his mandate and behaving as if he were still a member of of the legislature.
Gergerlioglu and other HDP deputies were also accused of shouting terrorist slogans.
The HDP has faced an ongoing government crackdown, with dozens of its members detained or jailed since an attempted coup in 2016 by a faction in the military.
Turkey’s chief prosecutor last week filed a lawsuit at the Constitutional Court to disband the HDP over alleged terrorism links, state news agency Anadolu reported.
The prosecutor accuses party members and managers of having links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
In February, Turkey’s top appeals court upheld a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for Gergerlioglu for terrorist propaganda, over a social media post in 2016, paving the way to removing his status as a lawmaker.
Istanbul
Pro-Kurdish politician Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu was detained early on Sunday after about 100 police officers entered the Turkish parliament building and took him into custody while he was still in his pyjamas and slippers, his party said.
Gergerlioglu, a well-known human rights advocate and an outspoken critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, had been staging a protest in parliament for the past five days.
The sit-in began on Wednesday, when the Turkish parliament stripped him of his seat, citing a final jail sentence against him over alleged terrorism ties.
But Gergerlioglu, a member of the the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said he would not leave the building until the Constitutional Court weighed in on his case.
The politician had been preparing for morning prayers on Sunday when the officers arrived, the HDP said.
“Let me do my prayers and change first, then we’ll go,” he was said to have told the
police.
But the officers refused and he was taken away.
Turkish news agency DHA reported that an investigation has now been launched against Gergerlioglu for the unlawful assumption of public office.
According to the report, he is accused of unlawfully staying on parliament grounds even after losing his mandate and behaving as if he were still a member of of the legislature.
Gergerlioglu and other HDP deputies were also accused of shouting terrorist slogans.
The HDP has faced an ongoing government crackdown, with dozens of its members detained or jailed since an attempted coup in 2016 by a faction in the military.
Turkey’s chief prosecutor last week filed a lawsuit at the Constitutional Court to disband the HDP over alleged terrorism links, state news agency Anadolu reported.
The prosecutor accuses party members and managers of having links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
In February, Turkey’s top appeals court upheld a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for Gergerlioglu for terrorist propaganda, over a social media post in 2016, paving the way to removing his status as a lawmaker.
