Mukaddes Kubilay, former Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) mayor of Doğubeyazıt (Bazîd) and co-mayor of Ağrı (Agirî), has been released from Ankara’s Sincan Women’s Closed Prison after nearly eight years imprisonment.
On release, Kubilay was welcomed by Sırrı Sakık, the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party MP for Ağrı (Agirî), representatives from the DEM Party’s Ankara Branch Organisation, and her family.
The former mayor expressed conflicting emotions at her release: “Nine friends, five of whom have been imprisoned for 30 years, are also supposed to have been released, but unfortunately every six months their release is postponed. I hope that this injustice will be rectified as soon as possible and our friends will regain their freedom.”
Kubilay entered active politics in 1990, became a member of the People’s Democracy Party (HADEP) and was elected Mayor of Doğubeyazıt in the eastern Kurdish-majority province of Ağrı in 1999. In 2004, she was re-elected, defeating eight male candidates in the party’s primary election and gaining a high percentage of votes in the municipal elections.
She held office until 2009, and after the elections of 1 June 2014 served as co-mayor of Ağrı provincial capital together with Sakık, who later became the DEM Party MP. Kubilay was one of the first Kurdish women to achieve such positions in Turkey.
Despite having voluntarily offered a statement in person, Kubilay was arrested in a raid on her daughter’s home on 22 December 2016. She was remanded in custody on 26 December, and on 1 March 2017, the state appointed a trustee to the Ağrı Municipality to replace her. On 16 February 2018, Kubilay was sentenced to 8 years, 6 months and 15 days in prison on charges of membership of and spreading propaganda for a terrorist organisation. The sentence was later reduced to 7 years and 6 months by a Supreme Court review.
She was denied parole by the prison’s Administrative and Monitoring Board on at least one occasion for ‘bad behaviour’. It is reported that the reasons for this included that she chanted slogans (a charge she denies, corroborated by security camera footage), she refused to answer degrading questions, and she shook hands with the families of fellow prisoners. As a result, she remained in prison for the full term of her sentence.
