Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality mayor Mızraklı to remain in prison

Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality mayor Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı to remain in prison.

The third hearing of the trial, which restarted after the 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the prison sentence given to Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality mayor Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı, was held at the Diyarbakır 9th High Criminal Court.

Mızraklı's lawyers Mehmet Emin Aktar, Zülal Erdoğan and Muhsin Bilal made their defense after the testimony of a witness.

After the lawyers' defense, the Prosecutor gave his opinion. The prosecutor demanded that Mızraklı be punished on the charge of "membership in a terrorist organization".

The court sentenced him to 7 years and 6 months' imprisonment on the charge of "membership in a terrorist organisation", increasing it by half, and applying a discretionary reduction on the 10 years and 6 months' imprisonment sentence, and eventually sentenced him to 9 years, 4 months and 15 days in prison.

The court decided to continue Mızraklı's detention.

Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı was elected co-mayor of the city of Amed in the local elections in March 2019. In August of the same year, he was forcibly removed from the post at the instigation of the Turkish Interior Ministry and replaced by a pro-government trustee. The same thing happened that day in the HDP strongholds of Van and Mardin. As a result, dozens of mayors of the HDP and its Kurdish sister party DBP were removed from their posts.

Mızraklı, who worked as a doctor until his election as mayor and sat on the board of the Sarmaşık Food Bank, which was later banned by emergency decree, was sentenced to nine years, four months and 15 days’ imprisonment in March 2020 on the basis of the testimony of the key witness Hicran Berna Ayverdi under the pretext of alleged "membership in a terrorist organisation".