PodcastJailed HDP politician's request for release denied despite heart condition
Jailed former Diyarbakir Mayor from pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selçuk Mızraklı was denied a petition to be released during the COVID-19 outbreak, to which he's particulary vulnerable due to a chronic heart condition. The Diyarbakir court refused to release Mızraklı on the grounds that his arrest and sentencing involved "special circumstances" and that there was no way to assure safety of his ongoing trial.
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Jailed former Diyarbakir Mayor from pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selçuk Mızraklı was denied a petition to be released during the COVID-19 outbreak, to which he's particulary vulnerable due to a chronic heart condition.
Mızraklı’s lawyer had presented a petition to the 9th Diyarbakir Heavy Penal Court for his client's release from the Kayseri prison where he's serving nine years and 15 days for "being a member of a terrorist organization," charges that materialized after Mızraklı’s landslide win in the local elections of March 2019.
Former HDP mayor sentenced to nine years in jailThe Diyarbakir court refused to release Mızraklı on the grounds that his arrest and sentencing involved "special circumstances" and that there was no way to assure safety of his ongoing trial.
"Considering the danger that would emerge for the public, it's apparent that the continuance of his detention is the proportionate response," the court said in the ruling.
The Diyarbakir court ruled that his health condition wasn't sufficient grounds to release Mızraklı, despite his lawyer's case of the life-threatening risk he's under due to the COVID-19 outbreak and his heart condition.
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