111 sentenced to jail in main KCK case in Turkey’s southeast

DİYARBAKIR

A total of 111 suspects in the main case into the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella group of Kurdish group that includes the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), were given a cumulative total of more than 1,100 years in jail by a Diyarbakır court on March 28. 

The Diyarbakır 2nd Court of Serious Crimes sentenced 111 suspects to prison terms of between 1 year, three months and 21 years in jail, while also acquitting 43 suspects. Out of the 111 suspects, 16 were given 21 years of prison sentence each. 

Lawyers attended the hearing of the case, which has been continuing for seven years and which included 154 suspects being tried without arrest. In their final statements, the suspects said that they demanded their acquittal. 

Lawyers for the suspects left the courtroom after the court board failed to appear until 5 p.m. even though it was supposed to rule at 4 p.m. The lawyers returned to the courthouse upon a call from president of the court and the 300-page ruling report was read out. 

The court gave prison sentences to 111 suspects for “membership in a terrorist organization,” “managing a terrorist organization,” “opposing the law on assembly and demonstration” and “opposing the law on firearms.” The court also said that no arrest or detention warrants were issued for 154 suspects. 

Democratic Regions Party (DBP) co-chair Kamuran Yüksek was among those sentenced to 21 years of prison for “finding and managing a terrorist organization.” Yüksek was also given another eight years, nine months in another case and subjected to a warrant for his capture, he said on Twitter. The DBP co-chair is currently overseas.

The ousted co-mayor of the southeastern province of Mardin, Ahmet Türk, was sentenced to one year and three months in jail for “opposing the law on assembly and demonstration,” but his sentence was postponed. 

The court sentenced one co-mayor of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality, Fırat Anlı, to six years and three months in jail for “membership in a terrorist organization,” while also sentencing Democratic Society Congress (DTK) co-chair Hatip Dicle to nine years in prison over the same charge. 

The main KCK case was opened with an indictment dated June 9, 2010, while the case was taken over by the Diyarbakır 2nd Court of Serious Crimes on Oct. 18, 2010. 

The files of 37 suspects, of whom eight are lawmakers from the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), were previously separated from the case that consists of 850 files.