Hearing in the case against HDP Adana MP Meral Danış Beştaş, who was jailed on January 31 and is facing up to 23 years in prison, was held at Diyarbakır 8th Heavy Penal Court today. Beştaş, who is prosecuted for a call she made for Kobanê while it was under ISIS attack in 2014, attended the hearing through video conference SEGBİS from Silivri Prison where she is kept, while many deputies and administrators from HDP as well as lawyers were present at the hearing.

In her defence at court, Beştaş said she was held in isolation during 33 days of her 81 day-long jail time.

Remarking that the political operation against HDP trampled on the immunity of deputies, Beştaş said a total of 182 summaries of proceedings were issued against Kurdish parliamentarians between 2007 and 2015, and as many as 382 against HDP deputies between December 2015 and May 2016 after President Erdoğan's statements targeting them.

Beştaş pointed out that these figures themselves reveal the political background of the lifting of parliamentary immunities, and expose how judiciary instrumentalized to this end.