Ankara Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Ahmet Akça has demanded up to 10 years in prison for Pervin Buldan, who was elected on Sunday as the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) new co-chairperson, the pro-government Star reported on Monday.
According to the report, in the indictment prepared by Akça, Buldan was accused of “membership in a terrorist organization” for 12 speeches given between 2008 and 2015. Buldan faces a sentence of from five to 10 years in prison.
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Monday launched an investigation into Buldan and HDP deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder over remarks on a Turkish military operation in the Afrin region of Syria during the party congress in Ankara on Sunday.
Turkish prosecutors had issued a detention warrant on Friday for Serpil Kemalbay, a former co-chairperson of the HDP, just two days before a party congress.
Former HDP Co-chairpersons Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ as well as several other deputies and dozens of party members are currently in jail on terror charges.