Turkish Police Detain Senior Pro-Kurdish Party Lawmaker
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Turkey's pro-Kurdish party said police have detained a deputy speaker of parliament, Pervin Buldan, using recent legislation that strips lawmakers of immunity.
Ayhan Bilgen, spokesman for the Peoples' Democratic Party, HDP, told The Associated Press that Buldan was taken away for questioning from her home in Istanbul early on Friday.
The state-run Anadolu Agency said she was detained over an on-going investigation into her activities.
Turkey's government accuses the HDP, the nation's third-largest party, of links to the outlawed Kurdish rebels - an accusation the party rejects.
In May, parliament voted to strip lawmakers of their legal immunity, paving the way for the HDP legislators' arrests.
A total of 12 HDP legislators have been jailed on terrorism-related charges since then, including co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.
