A motion has been filed against pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır deputy Sibel Yiğitalp for “terrorist propaganda” and “explicitly insulting the government of the Turkish Republic and the military and security agency of the state” by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the t24 news website reported on Thursday.
The motion, which has been sent to the Ministry of Justice, said Yiğitalp made a speech on Aug. 28, 2016 and referred to an operation launched by security forces against members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
In the event permission is received to investigate Yiğitalp for the offences, another motion will be filed with a demand for the removal of her parliamentary immunity. If her immunity is removed, legal action will be taken against the deputy, who could be sentenced to between one-and-a-half and seven years in prison.
The HDP’s jailed Co-chairperson Selahattin Demirtaş recently said HDP deputies are being kept in prison as part of a government strategy for snap elections.
“Preparations for the snap election alliance of the AKP [Justice and Development Party] and MHP [Nationalist Movement Party] have already gotten under way. This is the reason why they’re illegally keeping me and my colleagues in prison,” said Demirtaş in a written message read during the HDP’s “Conscience and Justice Watch” in Van province.
Condemning the efforts of the government to isolate HDP members, Demirtaş called on party members to participate in all activities of the people in the region.
The government has been criticized for stepping up a crackdown on Kurdish politicians.
There are currently 11 HDP deputies behind bars in Turkey. Trustees have been appointed to dozens of municipalities in the country’s predominantly Kurdish Southeast, while hundreds of local Kurdish politicians have been arrested on terror charges.