DIYARBAKIR: Turkish prosecutors are seeking jail sentences of up to 142 years for the two leaders of the main pro-Kurdish opposition party on charges including managing a terrorist organisation, according to the court indictment on Tuesday.

Turkish authorities in November arrested the two leaders of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Demo­cratic Party (HDP) as part of a terrorism investigation, drawing strong international condemnation over what rights groups say is a widening crackdown on dissent under President Tayyip Erdogan.

Prosecutors are seeking up to 142 years in jail for Selahattin Demirtas and up to 83 years for his co-leader, Figen Yuksekdag. The two are also charged with inciting violence and propaganda in support of a terrorist organisation.

Authorities say the HDP, parliament’s third-largest party, is an affiliate of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The HDP denies direct links to the outlawed group and says it wants to see a return to peace talks between the government and the PKK, which has carried out a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast.

In recent months, thousands of Kurdish politicians have been detained, including dozens of local mayors in the southeast.

The arrest of elected members of the pro-Kurdish opposition, and the detention or suspension of more than 100,000 officials since a failed coup in July, may “go beyond what is permissible”, the United Nations’ human rights office has said.

Published in Dawn January 18th, 2017