Former pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Şırnak deputy Ferhat Encü was released from Kandıra Prison in northern Turkey on Friday where he had been jailed since February 2017, according to Turkish media reports.
Encü was first arrested in a police operation on Nov. 4, 2016 along with eight other deputies including the party’s then-Co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ. He was released from Kandıra Prison in February 2017 but arrested again the same month.
In June 2017 Encü was handed down a prison sentence of 55 months, 10 days on terror charges by a Şırnak court.
In February 2018 the Turkish Parliament stripped Encü of his parliamentary status because an appeals court upheld jail sentences he was given on charges of disseminating the propaganda of a terrorist organization and acting in contravention of provincial administrative law.
In a separate trial concluded in June 2018, Encü was given a 10-month jail sentence that was ultimately commuted to a fine on charges of insulting the government, judicial organs and the security forces of Turkey.
Encü’s lawyer tweeted that his client was released from prison because he had finished serving his sentence.