The imprisoned MP and co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), Leyla Güven, and nine other prison inmates in Turkey were notified by the prison administration that they are going to be subjected to a disciplinary inquiry for dancing and singing in an “unidentified language” (Kurdish) in a prison ward, reports Jin News.
It was detailed in the notification that slogans using the words “guerrilla” and “Apo” had also been recognised and noted by the prison guards.
The inquiry is likely to be carried out on the basis of an alleged violation of ‘Covid-19 prevention measures.’
Leyla Güven, a dismissed MP for the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and former mayor of the Viranşehir (Wêranşar) district of Turkey’s southeastern province of Urfa (Riha), had been detained on 22 January 2018, and arrested nine days later for her criticism of Turkey’s cross-border military operation dubbed “Olive Branch” in Afrin, northern Syria.
When she was elected as an MP in June 2018, she was granted immunity and her release was issued by a judge. However, the prosecutor appealed against it and the decision was reversed before she was released.
Güven went on a hunger strike on 7 November 2018 to protest against the severe solitary confinement conditions that had been imposed on Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
She was released in January 2019, whilst still on hunger strike, and she continued with the strike until 26 May 2019, when she ended it upon news of a relative easing in Öcalan’s prison conditions.
She had made a statement in a wheelchair before she was taken to a hospital for treatment after her 200-day long hunger strike. “The result of this resistance is a victory for the peoples of Turkey,” she said.
On 4 June 2020, she was dismissed from parliament and arrested. She was released on 9 June only to be re-arrested again on 22 December 2020, a day after she was sentenced to a prison term of 22 years for alleged ‘membership of a terror organisation.’ Güven was awarded Honorary Citizenship of Paris on 4 February 2019.
