Former HDP MP İdris Baluken released from jail seven years later

Kurdish politician and former HDP lawmaker İdris Baluken has been released after serving 7 years in jail on “terrorism charges.” Baluken was detained and jailed on Nov. 4, 2016 when he was serving as the HDP group deputy chair.

Wednesday April 05 2023 04:06 pm

Duvar English

Former Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır deputy İdris Baluken has been released from Ankara’s Sincan Prison after seven years in prison, according to reporting by online news outlet T24.

The HDP released a statement saying, "Our former Group Deputy Chair and Diyarbakır Lawmaker Mr. İdris Baluken completed his time and was released from jail."

Baluken was detained and jailed on Nov. 4, 2016 when he was serving as the HDP group deputy chair. He stood trial at the Diyarbakır 8th Heavy Penal Court and received a sentence of nine years and two months in prison.

Baluken was accused of “praising the crime and criminal, making terror organization propaganda, committing a crime on behalf of the organization despite not being its member, insulting the Turkish nation, Turkish Republic state, and explicitly insulting the state’s organizations.”

During the trial process, Baluken was released from prison on Jan. 30, 2017 but was rejailed 22 days later on Feb. 21, 2017 upon an appeal filed by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The HDP is the second-largest opposition party in the Turkish Parliament.

The party’s former co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ have been jailed since Nov. 4, 2016, again under the same charges of “terrorism.”