Deposed co-mayor of Iğdır sentenced to seven and a half years in prison

The deposed mayor of Iğdır, Yaşar Akkuş (HDP), has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in Turkey. The HDP politician is accused of membership of a terrorist organization.

Akkuş was co-mayor of the Iğdır province on the border with Armenia until his arrest a year ago. The charges against him are based – as is usual in political trials in Turkey – on alleged statements by witnesses kept anonymous. Akkuş is being held as a political hostage in a prison in Erzurum.

The politician had been elected to the mayor’s office in 2019 along with Eylem Çelik. Both were arrested on May 15, 2020, and their posts were taken over by a state-appointed trustee. The HDP had won 65 city halls in the last local elections, almost all of which are now under government-appointed trustee administration.