Former mayor of Diyarbakır from HDP acquitted of terrorist propaganda charges

Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı, former mayor of southeastern Diyarbakır province from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was acquitted from charges of disseminating terrorist propaganda, Turkish media reported.

Mızraklı was accused of taking part in a three-day hunger strike, posting a Tweet in support of Kurdish activist Ramin Hossein Penahi who was executed in Iran, and taking part in a conference organized by the HDP in October 2018 where the situation of the Kurdish population was discussed.

In his defense Mızraklı said democracy and human rights had taken a turn for the worse in Turkey, especially since the July 15, 2016 coup attempt. Mızraklı added that he did not accept the accusations as his only goal was to ensure the restoration of democracy in Turkey.

“I reject accusations of terrorist propaganda,” he said. “Whatever I did, I did for peace and democracy.”

Mızraklı pointed out the Turkish authorities had yet to release the Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtaş despite a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling. “We want to believe that Turkey upholds the law, but that is not the case,” he said.

He remined the Venice Commission’s call in 2020 to the Turkish government urging them to reinstate the HDP mayors who were removed from their posts in southeastern provinces, and said authorities had completely disregarded this call.

The Ankara 28th Criminal Court ruled that Mızraklı had not carried out terrorist propaganda but exercised his freedom of expression.

Mızraklı is currently imprisoned in Kayseri Bünyan Prison for alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which  is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the US.

He was removed from his office as mayor by the Ministry of the Interior on August 19, 2019 and a trustee was appointed in his place. Mızraklı was arrested in October 2019 and sentenced to nine years and four months in prison. An appeals court upheld his sentence in March 2020.

Mayors Keziban Yılmaz, Gülcan Özer and Rojda Nazlıer, were also removed from their post and later arrested for alleged links to the PKK.

Human Rights Watch said the Turkish authorities’ removal and arrest of democratically elected Kurdish mayors across southeastern Turkey violated voters’ rights.

“Removing, detaining, and putting on trial local Kurdish politicians as armed militants with no compelling evidence of criminal activity seems to be the Turkish government’s preferred way to wipe out political opposition,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These cases are not linked to any legitimate counterterrorism effort but trample the rights of the mayors and the 1.8 million voters who elected them.”

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from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/former-mayor-of-diyarbakir-from-hdp-acquitted-of-terrorist-propaganda-charges/