Suspected attackers of HDP HQ face between three and 24 years in jail

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

CİHAN photo

Five suspects are accused of storming the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) headquarters in Ankara on Sept. 8, with four of them facing between six months and three years in prison. The other suspect accused of setting the building ablaze faces up 24 years in jail.

According to the indictment prepared by prosecutor Ali Alper Saylan from the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Aykut Dinçer, 22, Ali Yıldırım, 23, İlker Çelen, 23, and Mehmet Alan, 23, face jail time varying from six months to three years, if found guilty of violating the law on demonstrations. 

Doğan Haydar Ciritcioğlu, 23, on the other hand, faces jail time from seven years to 24 years and seven months if found guilty of damaging property belonging to political parties, attempting to prevent a political party’s actions by force, violating the law on demonstrations, attempted robbery, and breaching the impunity of workplaces. 

The indictment has been sent to the Ankara 32nd Criminal Court of First Instance, which will decide whether to accept the charges against the suspects and open a criminal file. 

The HDP headquarters in Ankara, as well as local party buildings across Turkey, were attacked in demonstrations against the killings of security personnel in outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attacks in the country’s east and southeast late on Sept. 8. 

Around 50 protesters marched toward Ankara’s HDP headquarters to break into the building but faced a police barricade at the entry and exit of the street where the office is located.

Several protesters who avoided the barricade hurled stones at the building, smashed the HDP banner at its entry and hoisted a Turkish flag on HDP’s flag pole, after police officers fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

The prosecutor’s indictment states how Ciritcioğlu entered the HQ and set the building ablaze, which he also admitted in his testimonies.