More than 100 people linked to a pro-Kurdish party went on trial Monday in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, for their alleged involvement in violent protests nearly seven years ago.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, says the trial is politically motivated and is the latest in a severe government crackdown against them.
The HDP says this week's case is another step by authorities to damage the party after a prosecutor filed a case for its closure in March over alleged links to Kurdish militants.
The 108 defendants are charged with 37 counts of homicide and disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state. They could be sentenced to life in jail without parole if convicted.
Twenty-eight defendants are currently in jail. The indictment accuses the defendants of instigating the protests, a claim which the HDP denies.
The HDP has come under increasing pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party (AKP) and its Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) allies in recent years.
Selahattin Demirtas, who co-led the HDP, and twice ran for president, is accused for speeches and tweets that allegedly incited violence. Demirtas has been in prison since November 2016 on multiple cases and remains behind bars despite European Court of Human Rights orders to release him.
The HDP, which has seen a widespread crackdown and is facing threats of closure, denies all the charges and says the case “is to pressure and purge the Kurdish and democratic political opposition.” The government, however, stood by the trial.
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