Kurdish Politician Tuğluk Facing 75 Years in Jail

Aysel Tuğluk, Co-Chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), is facing up to 75 years in prison on the grounds of twelve speeches she delivered on the topic of finding a solution for the Kurdish question.

Prosecutor Ergun Tokgöz presented his final plea in the hearing on Thursday (16 December). He demanded prison terms of between 15 and 75 years according to a twelve-count offence of "spreading propaganda for an illegal organization" and "committing a crime on behalf of an illegal organization without being a member of the organization". The hearing was adjourned upon the defence lawyer's request for additional time to prepare the defence.

The trial is heard before the 4^th High Criminal Court of Diyarbakır, a city in the pre-dominantly Kurdish region of south-eastern Turkey. Tuğluk was represented by her lawyer Fethi Gümüş.

In his final plea, the prosecutor claimed that Tuğluk used organizational arguments and made organizational propaganda to the public in several speeches the Kurdish politician delivered at political and organizational events since 2005.

Prosecutor Tokgöz evaluated Tuğluk's mentioning of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan as the negotiator for the Kurdish question as an element of crime. The PKK is the militant Kurdistan Workers Party. Tokgöz furthermore put forward that Tuğluk attended the events according to the call of the PKK.

Tuğluk is a former executive member of the banned pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP). After the party's closure by the Constitutional Court in 2009, she lost her immunity formerly granted as a member of parliament.

What Tuğluk said

According to the prosecutor's final plea, Tuğluk allegedly made "propaganda for an illegal organization" in three of her speeches, even though she referred neither to the PKK nor to Öcalan in these speeches that are quoted as follows:

* 21 March 2005: On the occasion of the Newroz celebrations in Batman (south-eastern Turkey) Tuğluk said, "Dear people of Batman, I will now read out a message that is meaningful to you and comes from somebody belonging to you".

* 4 July 2007: Tuğluk was quoted as saying during the opening ceremony of an election office in the Mevlana Halit district of Diyarbakır: "On 22 July, the people of Diyarbakır will tell the people who come into public and bring forward the halters and who make politics upon the blood of the people, who do not care about a person and a person's life that they cannot dare that. [...]If you follow policies that respect our people's will for struggle, we will make these policies work together".

* 4 March 2009: Tuğluk spoke in the Silvan district of Diyarbakır referring to an event to mark the International Women's Day on 8 March. "With love and respect we commemorate the ones who lost their lives in the women's struggle for freedom and the ones who are continuing the struggle. As Kurdish women we know our own future with our own free will, our independence, our pioneers and our women movement". (BB/VK)

Sources: Hürriyet and Vatan newspapers, Fırat News Agency.