Three members of solidarity association sentenced to prison

The Sarmaşık Association for Combating Poverty and Sustainable Development was founded in 2006 by the Metropolitan Municipality and civil organizations in the south-eastern city of Amed (Diyarbakir) and was supported by the governorate as well. At the time, the association set up free supermarkets and all kinds of other services for the impoverished population in the Kurdish city, which had grown massively as a result of displacement and village destruction.

The association was closed in 2016 in line with a governmental decree (KHK). Executives and members of the association, which has offered humanitarian relief to over 4,000 people, were then prosecuted and sentenced to prison.

The hearings of the lawsuits against Sarmaşık board member Selim Ölçer and members Mahmut Erinç and Haydar Kılıç were held separately at the 9th High Criminal Court of Diyarbakır.

The prosecutor demanded that the defendants be punished on charges of “willingly helping a terrorist organization without being a member of it”.

The court board first sentenced board member Ölçer and members Erinç and Kılıçoğlu to 5 years in prison, and reduced their sentences to 2 years and a month in prison each.