Former HDP MP released from prison 4 months after completion of sentence

A former lawmaker from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has been released from prison four months after she completed the sentence handed down to her on terrorism-related charges in 2019, the Bianet news website reported.

Former HDP deputy Gülser Yıldırım, who was arrested on Nov. 4, 2016 and sentenced to seven years, six months in prison for “membership in a terrorist organization” by the Mardin 3rd High Criminal Court, was released from Kandıra Prison in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday.

Yıldırım, who was supposed to spend two-thirds of her sentence — five years, seven months and 16 days — behind bars, in accordance with Law No. 7242 Amending the Law on the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures, was not released for four months although she had served the required time.

Her lawyers previously stated that Yıldırım’s release was “arbitrarily” prevented by the prison administration.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), together with its ally, the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), have long portrayed the HDP as the political front of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community and has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

The party denies links to the PKK and says it is working to achieve a peaceful solution to Turkey’s Kurdish issue and is only coming under attack because of its strong opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 20-year rule.

The political and legal assault on the HDP, which intensified after a truce between Kurdish militants and the AKP government broke down in 2015, grew even stronger after Erdoğan survived a coup attempt in July 2016 that was followed by a sweeping political crackdown.

The party currently faces a closure case on charges of “attempting to destroy the indivisibility between the state and the people.”

Hundreds of HDP politicians, including the party’s former co-chairs, are behind bars on terrorism charges, while most of the 65 HDP mayors elected in the predominantly Kurdish Southeast in 2019 have been replaced by government-appointed trustees.