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Turkish prosecutor seeks five-year jail for pro-Kurdish party leader

Xinhua, August 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

A Turkish prosecutor on Friday demanded five years in jail for a co-chair and a deputy of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) over charges of "terrorist propaganda," local media said.

Kadir Yilmaz, deputy chief prosecutor of Istanbul's Bakirkoy district, indicted HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtas and its Ankara deputy Sirri Sureyya Onder for speaking in favor of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in a rally in Istanbul in March 2013, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

During the rally, slogans were chanted in support of PKK's imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan while the crowd carried his pictures.

Both Demirtas and Onder also praised Ocalan and the PKK in their speeches made on the occasion, the indictment noted.

The HDP has been shunned in the ongoing reconciliation between the ruling Justice and Development Party and the opposition parties, a process started right after the July 15 failed coup bid, for its alleged link to the PKK.

The PKK has been seeking autonomy in southeastern Turkey for over 30 years and renewed fighting with the Turkish security forces in July last year. Endit