The new Turkey
Figen Yüksekdağ.
Pro-Kurdish HDP deputy

11-Jan-2020 9:22

20 February 2018
The Turkish parliament voted to lift immunities from prosecution from members of parliament in May 2016, leading to the arrest of a number of them, including former party co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ.

7 January 2020:

Jailed former leader of pro-Kurdish HDP fined for insulting Erdoğan

A Turkish court has ruled the jailed former co chair of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Figen Yüksekdağ must pay 1740 TL liras ($ 291) for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The HDP former co-chair, who has been jailed since 2016 on terror related charges , attended Tuesday’s trial via closed-circuit camera system (SEGBİS), Artı Gerçek news site reported.

His lawyer represented Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it said.  "The case in which I am accused of insulting the president is not a trial, but a political method to extend the life of the ruling party,’’ Yüksekdağ said. 

Between 2010 and 2017, 12,893 cases of insulting the president were filed. Of these, 12,305 were filed under the presidency Erdoğan, who assumed office in 2014. Yüksekdağ was arrested in November 2016 along with HDP co-chair, Selahattin Demirtaş.

29 September 2019:

Turkish court issues second arrest warrant in a week for jailed former HDP leader

A Turkish court sentenced on Friday the jailed former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), to prison for her relation to a wave of violence sparked in 2014 by demonstrations in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, Rudaw reported. She was sentenced to prison for the second time a week after another arrest warrant for her was issued by a public prosecutor.

Ankara’s 16th Heavy Penalty Court tried Figen Yuksekdag on charges including leading a “terror organisation” and anti-government protests, and “inciting hatred and animosity,” Rudaw said. The former HDP co-chair has been held since November 2016, when she and her fellow co-chair, Selahattin Demirtaş, were arrested on similar charges.

Turkish prosecutors on Sept. 20 issued arrest warrants for Demirtaş and  Yüksekdağ in relation to a wave of violence sparked in 2014 by demonstrations in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast against Turkey’s lack of action to protect the Syrian border city of Kobane from the Islamic State (ISIS).

"The verdict followed the adoption of a resolution on September 18 by the European Parliament which 'condemns the continued arrest' of Demirtas and calls on Turkish authorities to allow his 'immediate and unconditional release'," Rudaw said.

The breakdown of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government’s peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 2015 left the HDP exposed to prosecution due to some members’ links to the Kurdish insurgent movement. A legal amendment allowing courts to lift parliamentary immunity passed in 2016, and the state of emergency implemented in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt in July that year further enhanced the AKP government’s power to target the party. Yüksekdağ is one of 10 HDP lawmakers currently imprisoned in Turkey. Yüksekdağ’s application for release was rejected by the court in Ankara, which said it had been given no justification warranting her release.

Apr 18, 2018 
Pro-Kurdish HDP deputy Yüksekdağ gets 6-month in jail for ‘violating election bans’

Figen Yüksekdağ, former co-chairperson of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) who has been jailed since November 2016, has been handed down a prison sentence of six months on charges of violating election bans.
The last hearing in Yüksekdağ’s trial was held at the Erciş 2nd Penal Court of First Instance in the eastern province of Van on Friday. Yüksekdağ was convicted over a speech she made at the opening of a bus terminal in Erciş on Oct. 27, 2015. Turkey held general elections on Nov. 1 2015.

In her defense, Yüksekdağ said it was normal for her to attend the opening of the bus station in Erciş as a deputy from Van and that she did not make her speech when the election prohibitions were in effect, which is 24 hours before elections. The sentence given to Yüksekdağ is the first handed down to a politician in Turkey for violating election bans.

Yüksekdağ is currently jailed in Kandıra Prison. She faces a sentence of between 30 and 83 years on terror charges. The party’s other former co-chairperson, Selahattin Demirtaş, and several other deputies are also behind bars. Source

Kemalbay succeeded Figen Yüksekdağ as co-leader in May 2017 after Yüksekdağ was stripped of her status as lawmaker in February of the same year.

Prosecutors demand 10 years in prison for jailed former HDP co-leader

Imprisoned former Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Figen Yüksekdağ, currently in prison on terror-related charges, is facing a sentence of 10 years in jail over “terrorist propaganda” and “defaming the Turkish Republic.” 

The Mersin 2nd Heavy Criminal Court continued the case against Yüksekdağ on Sept. 11 in her absence, with prosecutors seeking a sentence of 10 years in prison over a speech she delivered at Nevruz celebrations in the southern province of Mersin in 2016. 

Yüksekdağ was arrested on Nov. 4, 2016, along with nine other HDP lawmakers, and has been in prison since then. 

“There are currently more than 20 cases ongoing in different courts,” her lawyer Gülseren Yoleri told Hürriyet Daily News on Sept. 11.

“There are also eight different investigations by prosecutors filed against her, and we anticipate them being turned into a case,” she added. 

After her first conviction was finalized in February, Yüksekdağ was stripped of her seat in parliament. “And two other convictions are in an appeal process,” her lawyer said. 

As the Ankara 16th Heavy Criminal Court is also continuing a case against, her lawyers demanded a merge of files, but the Mersin Court Board declined the demand on grounds that the “two cases only have her name in common,” adjourning the hearing.

She is facing 30 to 83 years in prison for “inciting to commit a crime” and “inciting the public to hatred and hostility,” in the Ankara case, where the next hearing will be held on Sept. 18.

With Yüksekdağ and Nursel Aydoğan, another lawmaker for the Kurdish issue-focused party, stripped of their seats in parliament, there are currently nine HDP deputies in prison on terror charges, including the party’s co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş.

Two other former lawmakers, Faysal Sarıyıldız and Tuğba Hezer, who were also stripped of their seats in parliament following criminal charges, left Turkey in the wake of a parliamentary decision to remove lawmakers’ immunities in 2016 and have been abroad ever since.
Source: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/prosecutors-demand-10-years-in-prison-for-jailed-former-hdp-co-leader-117836

Motion to lift HDP deputies’ immunity in Turkish parliament

Court issues fifth prison sentence for former HDP co-leader Yüksekdağ