Stripped of parliamentary immunity, HDP MP Semra Güzel faces investigation

A few days after the lifting of her parliamentary immunity, an investigation against HDP politician Semra Güzel has now been officially opened. The Turkish Ministry of Justice has appointed the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office to file the public complaint. Whether or not it will eventually file the civil suit depends on the assessment of the evidence, but is considered likely. Güzel’s next step will be to be questioned by the chief prosecutor’s office. A summons to this effect has not yet been issued.

Kurdish politician Semra Güzel has been sitting in the Turkish National Assembly for the HDP since the early parliamentary elections in June 2018. Last Tuesday, she was stripped of her political immunity. In the vote, 313 MPs from the other parliamentary groups voted for the lifting of immunity, while 52 MPs voted against. Güzel’s parliamentary group left the chamber after the decision amid loud protests.

Semra Güzel is facing a long prison sentence. The groundwork for this was laid by an elaborate and state-directed defamation campaign against the 38-year-old, the starting point of which were photos showing Güzel with the guerrilla fighter Volkan Bora (Nom de Guerre: Koçero Meletî). The photos were taken in 2014 in a guerrilla camp in southern Kurdistan, 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 province of Adıyaman, was Güzel’s former fiancé. From the pictures with him, the Turkish prosecuting authorities construct accusations such as “membership in a terrorist organisation” and “financing terrorism” against the politician. Allegedly, Güzel visited PKK camps in Southern Kurdistan several times even after the resumption of fighting. The HDP said that the defamation campaign was a propaganda manoeuvre in the course of the proceedings to ban the party.