A court in eastern Van province on Thursday accepted an indictment against Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ, who was detained by police on Nov. 4 over links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The indictment, prepared by the Van Public Prosecutor’s Office, calls for a five-year prison sentence for Yüksekdağ for “making propaganda for a terrorist organization” and acting against Turkish electoral law.
The charges against the HDP co-chair stem from an incident in October 2015 when Yüksekdağ reportedly referred to slain PKK militants as “martyrs” during an election campaign speech.
She, along with a dozen other HDP deputies, including her fellow party Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, was detained after police raided her home in Ankara on Nov. 4.