HDP: Gergerlioğlu 'abducted' from hospital and put in prison

Photo: Salih Gergerlioğlu / Twitter

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Ousted Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu was hospitalized due to having chest pain following his detention last night (April 2).

He was taken to the Ankara City Hospital and put in intensive care after undergoing angiography.

Gergerlioğlu was taken to prison today although his treatment was still continuing, HDP deputy Mahmut Toğrul told bianet.

Along with Toğrul, HDP deputies Ayşe Acar-Başaran, Oya Ersoy, Erol Katırcıoğlu, Fatma Kurtulan and Mehmet Tiryaki and HDP Law Commission member Ümit Dede went to the hospital in the morning but the party members and Gergerlioğlu's son Salih Gergerlioğlu were not allowed to visit him.

He was taken out of the intensive care unit and taken to the prison without anyone being informed "as if he was abducted," said Toğrul.

"We were not allowed to meet with doctors and hospital officials on the pretext of 'weekend.' We couldn't get beyond security officers despite all our efforts," he said. "While we were waiting in front of the hospital, soldiers were waiting at the door. But then the teams suddenly left there. While we were waiting, he was secretly taken out."

Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca spoke to the HDP deputies and told them that Gergerlioğlu was in good health, he added. "Regardless of what happened, this attitude is unacceptable. A deputy is exposed to death. He is forcefully taken to prison with the intention of killing. Nothing is said to our party as to his whereabouts.

"All this is the result of five years of the policies of attacking the HDP. all kinds of oppression is there. They want to show that oppression has become ordinary. They have created an order where no one considers themselves authorized. They are making the history of oppression and we are making the history of resistance. We won't bow down to what has been done."

Gergerlioğlu's trial and expulsion from the parliament

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Kocaeli MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu was sentenced to 2 years, 6 months in prison on the charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" on February 21, 2018, because of a social media post from 2016. The conviction was upheld by the 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation on February 19.

Speaking shortly after this ruling was handed down, Gergerlioğlu said that the verdict was "political", adding, "Strip searches, abductions, tortures... Some people got disturbed by us talking about all these."

He also made an application to the Constitutional Court. However, the final ruling of the court was read out at the Plenary Session of the Parliament on March 17, 2021, and he was stripped of his MP duty. He refused to leave the parliament in protest of the decision, starting a "justice watch."

During his protest, he was detained at the parliament as part of a new investigation on March 21 and released on the same day after giving testimony.

The Constitutional Court rejected an application against the revocation of his parliamentary mandate on March 31. His application against his prison sentence is pending at the court. (RT/VK)