The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has named journalist Ahmet Şık as a candidate for member of parliament in the upcoming elections on June 24, the Artı Gerçek news website reported.
The pro-Kurdish HDP is planning to offer candidacy to several figures who have faced trials since the party’s presidential candidate, Selahattin Demirtaş, is also in pretrial detention.
Another candidate is jailed professor Onur Hamzaoğlu, who was the editor of a medical periodical published by the Turkish Medical Association.
Veli Saçılık, a symbolic figure known for his disobedience of police in several demonstrations held in Ankara’s Yüksel Street, and Leyla Güven, the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) co-chair who is also in jail, are among the HDP’s candidates.
A leading human rights activist, Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, announced his nomination on May 7.