HDP Honorary Chair Ertuğrul Kürkçü Faces Up To 20 Years in Prison on 3 Charges
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A lawsuit has been filed against Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Honorary Chair and 24th Term Mersin and 25th-26th Term İzmir MP Ertuğrul Kürkçü. Kürkçü has been facing up to 20 years in prison.
Upon seeing that the summaries of proceedings which were issued against Kürkçü while he was an MP became subject to two different investigations, Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor Kenan Karaca issued an indictment against Kürkçü by combining these investigations.
Charging Kürkçü with "membership of an armed terrorist organization", "praising the crime and the criminal" and "attending illegal meetings and demonstrations unarmed and not dispersing despite warnings", Prosecutor Karaca demanded that the lawsuit to be filed against Kürkçü would be combined with the one at the Diyarbakır 10th Heavy Penal Court.
Court has combined the two cases
Accepting the indictment of the Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor's Office, the Diyarbakır 10th Heavy Penal Court has ruled that the recent lawsuit filed against Kürkçü shall be combined with the ongoing court case filed on charges of "membership of an armed terrorist organization", "openly inciting the public to enmity and hatred", "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" and "inciting the public to disobey the laws."
Cases in Mardin and Diyarbakır were also combined
Two other lawsuits were also filed against Ertuğrul Kürkçü in Mardin and Diyarbakır in relation with a speech that he made in Nusaybin in 2012 and three speeches that he made in Diyarbakır in 2015-2016.
The Mardin 4th Heavy Penal Court ruled that two cases shall be combined at the Diyarbakır 10th Heavy Penal Court. Kürkçü and his attorney Mustafa Bayram Mısır objected to the verdict.
However, the Regional Court upheld the verdict and the case of the combined files began at the Diyarbakır 10th Heavy Penal Court.
Issuing a single indictment based on two investigations, Prosecutor Karaca demanded that the lawsuit to be filed against Kürkçü be combined with the above-mentioned lawsuit. (TP/SD)