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Parliamentary committee votes to strip HDP MP Güzel of immunity

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The lifting of the parliamentary immunity of HDP deputy Semra Güzel has moved closer. On Thursday, the parliament’s preparatory committee voted to revoke the 38-year-old politician’s immunity. This makes a lawsuit against the politician for anti-constitutional activities by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office more likely. Güzel has been in the Turkish National Assembly since 2018.

The vote of the preparatory committee, which includes three AKP MPs, one CHP member and one HDP parliamentarian, was in favour of lifting Güzel’s immunity, with one vote against. Now the panel’s report is to go to the Constitutional and Judicial Commissions. The plenum will decide on the withdrawal of MP’s immunity by simple majority. The vote is scheduled for next Tuesday. It is expected that the commission will follow the committee’s recommendation.

Semra Güzel is facing criminal investigation for treason and terrorism. The groundwork for this was laid by an elaborate and state-directed defamation campaign against the Kurdish politician in newspapers close to the government. The starting point were photos showing Güzel with guerrilla fighter Volkan Bora (Nom de Guerre: Koçero Meletî). The photos were taken in 2014 in a guerrilla camp in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq), when a delegation of the HDP visited the PKK with state knowledge as part of the peace process to discuss further steps towards de-escalation.

HPG guerrilla Volkan Bora, who died in April 2017 during Turkish air strikes in the countryside of Adıyaman province, was Güzel’s former fiancé. From the pictures with him, the prosecution constructs accusations such as “membership in a terrorist organisation” and “financing terrorism” against the politician. Güzel is alleged to have visited PKK camps in southern Kurdistan several times even after fighting had resumed. The HDP said that the defamation campaign was a propaganda manoeuvre in the course of the proceedings to ban the party. If Güzel is convicted, she faces many years in prison.

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