ISTANBUL: A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced the former head of a pro-Kurdish party to 42 years in prison for his alleged role in deadly 2014 protests that erupted as Daesh group jihadists overran the Syrian town of Kobani.
In jail since 2016, Selahattin Demirtas, 51, a two-time election rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was convicted of dozens of crimes including undermining state unity and the country’s integrity.
The court in Sincan, on the outskirts of Ankara, also sentenced the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) former co-chair Figen Yuksekdag to 30 years and three months in jail, private broadcaster NTV and rights group MLSA reported.
After the hearing, several lawmakers for the party, which has since been renamed the DEM, held up portraits of the two jailed leaders in the national assembly.
Fearing troubles after the case, the governors of at least 14 southern provinces with large Kurdish and Syrian communities banned demonstrations for four days, MLSA added.
The court ordered the release of some politicians, including Gultan Kisanak, former mayor of the major pro-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, but many others were handed jail terms.
The case against former HDP members, including Demirtas and Yuksekdag, stems from a dark episode of the more than decade-long Syria war.
Thirty-seven people died in demonstrations against the Turkish army’s inaction in the face of an IS offensive against the largely Kurdish northern Syrian town.
The fighting was visible from the Turkish side of the border and many in the Kurdish community viewed the army as complicit in the humanitarian disaster that followed.
The jihadists were driven out of Kobani in January 2015 by US-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters that Turkiye officially views as terrorists.
Turkiye views the HDP as the political front of outlawed Kurdish militants who have been waging an insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984.
The HDP blamed Turkish police for causing the deaths.
In 2023 testimony, Demirtas slammed the case against him. “There’s no single evidence about me. This is a case of political revenge, we were not legally arrested, we are all political hostages.”
Demirtas has been in jail in the western city of Edirne since 2016, facing multiple trials on terror-related charges that Western governments view as part of Erdogan’s crackdown on political dissent.
The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly called for his release.
The court verdict against former leaders and members of the HDP — which faces a court case that could result in it being shut down — sparked protests.
DEM Party co-chair Tuncer Bakirhan slammed the verdict as a “black stain in the history of Turkish justice.”
“We all witnessed a legal massacre here today,” Bakirhan said.
“Kurds and revolutionaries were tried to be erased from the political scene,” he added.
Prosecutors accused the 108 defendants of “attacking the integrity of the state,” and of crimes including looting and murder.
They sought an aggravated life sentence for 36 suspects including Demirtas on charges of attacking state unity and the country’s integrity.
Human Rights Watch called the conviction of Demirtas and other leading Kurdish politicians the latest move in a campaign of persecution that has disenfranchised mainly Kurdish voters.
“Using bogus criminal proceedings to remove democratically elected Kurdish politicians from political life will do nothing to end the Turkish state’s decades-long conflict with the PKK,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Defense lawyers said they would appeal the verdict, which came after Erdogan spoke of a “softening” in politics, after his Islamic-rooted party suffered a historic defeat in the March 31 local elections.
“The politics in Turkiye needs softening. We will do our part as before,” he said in an address on Wednesday.
The issue of political prisoners, including leading civil society leader Osman Kavala, reportedly came up during Erdogan’s rare meeting on May 2 with opposition CHP leader Ozgur Ozel. The CHP retained control of large cities including Istanbul and made major gains in the March vote.
On Wednesday, an Istanbul court rejected a request for Kavala to be retried.
The Paris-born philanthropist was arrested in October 2017 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2022 for allegedly trying to topple Erdogan’s government.
Turkiye court jails Kurdish leader for 42 years over 2014 unrest
https://arab.news/zqxfn
Turkiye court jails Kurdish leader for 42 years over 2014 unrest
- HDP former co-chair Figen Yuksekdag was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison
Vital civilian infrastructure in Sudan hit by surging violence
GENEVA: The International Committee of the Red Cross warned on Monday that surging attacks in Sudan had severely disrupted access to clean water and electricity for millions of people across the war-ravaged country.
“We are witnessing a disturbing pattern of attacks on critical civilian infrastructure so essential for people’s survival,” Dorsa Nazemi-Salman, head of ICRC operations in Sudan, said in a statement, urging all parties to “protect these vital facilities,” including power plants, water stations, and dams.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal war between army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy and head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.
The war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million, and pushed many Sudanese to the brink of famine.
It has also decimated Sudan’s already fragile infrastructure, with large-scale attacks in recent weeks on dams and oil refineries.
Over the weekend, the UN said an RSF drone attack on a hospital in El-Fasher, in Sudan’s western Darfur region, had killed 70 people, including patients receiving critical care.
ICRC stressed on Monday that electricity and water supply disruptions also have dire ripple effects on the proper functioning of hospitals and critical healthcare.
Lacking access to clean water “undermines public health, significantly heightening the risk of cholera outbreaks and other health crises.”
The organization demanded that parties to the conflict “take immediate measures to protect critical civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals, water, and electricity installations.”
“It is their obligation under international humanitarian law and a commitment they made through the Jeddah Declaration of May 2023,” it said.
“Unless such measures are taken swiftly, civilians severely affected by the conflict risk losing access to essential services.”
ICRC highlighted that essential infrastructure like power plants and water facilities are considered under international humanitarian law as civilian objects that must be protected from direct attacks and the effects of hostilities.
UN report details torture, arbitrary detention, crimes against humanity carried out by former Assad regime
- Investigation reveals Syrian authorities routinely used beatings, electric shocks, mutilation, sexual violence, and psychological torment
- Weeks after Assad’s overthrow in December, agony persists for tens of thousands of families searching for missing loved ones
NEW YORK: A new report from the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry paints a chilling picture of widespread abuses by the former Syrian government during the first decade of civil war in the country.
The commission’s findings, released on Monday, highlight the systematic use of arbitrary detention, torture, and enforced disappearances aimed at crushing dissent.
These acts, described as crimes against humanity and war crimes, represent some of the most severe violations of international law during the Syrian conflict.
The overthrow of the former government and the release of prisoners from its torture chambers mark a dramatic change for Syrians, “something almost unthinkable just two months ago,” said the commission.
“We stand at a critical juncture. The transitional government and future Syrian authorities can now ensure these crimes are never repeated,” said Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, chair of the commission, adding that the scale of the brutality is “staggering.”
“We hope our findings from almost 14 years of investigations will help end impunity for these patterns of abuse.”
Titled “Web of Agony: Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Ill-Treatment in the Syrian Arab Republic,” the report draws on over 2,000 witness testimonies, including more than 550 interviews with survivors of torture.
The commission’s investigation, which spans nearly 14 years, offers an unprecedented, comprehensive insight into the horrific violations inside Syria’s detention facilities and the profound “legacy of trauma and suffering for the suffering people.”
The report details a wide array of torture methods employed by the Syrian authorities, including severe beatings, electric shocks, mutilation, sexual violence, and psychological torment.
Detainees were subjected to prolonged periods of isolation, denied medical care, and often left to die from malnutrition, disease, or injuries. In some cases, survivors reported that bodies were left in cells for days, further compounding the suffering.
The report describes in chilling detail the pattern of “torture and cruel, degrading, inhumane treatment that former State forces inflicted on detained men, women, boys, and girls.”
These include severe beatings, electric shocks, burning, pulling out nails, damaging teeth, rape, sexual violence including mutilation, prolonged stress positions, deliberate neglect and denial of medical care, exacerbating wounds, and psychological torture.
Survivors and witnesses told the commission how prisoners, enduring torture injuries, malnutrition, disease, and illness, were left to die slowly in excruciating pain or were taken away to be executed.
Food rations were scarce or tainted, there was a shortage of clean drinking water and adequate clothing, and prisoners had so little space they were unable to lie down to sleep and were forced to rest on cold floors with only a blanket as a mattress. Survivors also reported that corpses were left in communal cells for days.
When the commission began its first on-site investigations, it found small, windowless isolation cells in the basement still saturated with a terrible stench and bearing the marks of unimaginable suffering. The conditions at these locations matched the accounts provided by hundreds of survivors and defectors over the past 14 years.
While the former government of Syria was overthrown in December 2024, agony persists for tens of thousands of families who continue to search for missing loved ones, many of whom were detained under the previous regime’s brutal policies.
The discovery of additional mass graves has deepened fears that many of the missing have perished in the torture chambers or been executed by the authorities.
Following recent visits to mass graves and former detention centers in the Damascus area, the commission confirmed that substantial evidence of the crimes remains.
Sites such as the notorious Sednaya prison, Military Intelligence Branch 235, and Air Force Intelligence branches in Mezzeh and Harasta still bear traces of the regime’s crimes.
Although much of the documentation had been destroyed, significant remnants of evidence have survived, raising hopes of uncovering the truth about the fate of missing persons.
The report underscores the urgent need for safeguarding evidence, archives, and crime sites, including mass graves, until experts can examine them and conduct forensic exhumations.
“For Syrians who did not find their loved ones among the freed, this evidence, alongside testimonies of freed detainees, may be their best hope to uncover the truth about missing relatives,” said commissioner Lynn Welchman.
The commission has urged the new caretaker government to prioritize the protection of these mass graves and crime scenes, as well as the collection of further evidence through forensic exhumations.
While the overthrow of the regime represents a turning point, the commission stresses that the road to justice and accountability is far from over. With the former government’s fall, Syria is now at a critical juncture. The transitional authorities and future leaders have an opportunity to ensure these crimes are not repeated, the commission said.
“The transition period offers a window of opportunity to break the cycle of impunity,” noted commissioner Hanny Megally.
“We hope to see credible justice initiatives in Syria, where survivors and their families can play an active role. The international community must be ready to assist in this effort.”
The report also calls for continued international support for Syrian civil society and human rights organizations, urging nations to pursue universal jurisdiction to bring perpetrators to justice.
The commission continues to work with the UN and partner organizations, including the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism and the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic to support accountability and justice efforts.
It was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011, and since then has investigated violations of international law during the Syrian conflict, which has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and displaced millions of people.
The commission’s mandate has been extended multiple times, most recently until March 2025.
With this report, the UN commission seeks not only to document the scale of the atrocities committed by the former regime but also to contribute to a broader effort to ensure that such violations never happen again.
Arab League says any plan to uproot Palestinians from Gaza would be ‘ethnic cleansing’
- The bloc was reacting to President Trump’s suggestion to ‘clean out’ Gaza Strip, move its population to Egypt and Jordan
- Egyptian President El-Sisi has repeatedly warned that any planned displacement would threaten Egypt’s national security
CAIRO: The Arab League on Sunday warned against “attempts to uproot the Palestinian people from their land,” after US President Donald Trump suggested a plan to “clean out” the Gaza Strip and move its population to Egypt and Jordan.
“The forced displacement and eviction of people from their land can only be called ethnic cleansing,” the regional bloc’s general secretariat said in a statement.
“Attempts to uproot the Palestinian people from their land, whether by displacement, annexation or settlement expansion, have been proven to fail in the past,” the statement added.
Earlier Sunday, Egypt vehemently expressed its objection to Trump’s suggestion.
Cairo’s foreign ministry in a statement expressed Egypt’s “continued support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land.”
It “rejected any infringement on those inalienable rights, whether by settlement or annexation of land, or by the depopulation of that land of its people through displacement, encouraged transfer or the uprooting of Palestinians from their land, whether temporarily or long-term.”
After 15 months of war, Trump said Gaza had become a “demolition site” and he would “like Egypt to take people, and I’d like Jordan to take people.”
Moving Gaza’s inhabitants could be done “temporarily or could be long term,” he said.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023 both countries have warned of plans to displace Palestinians from Gaza into neighboring Egypt and from the West Bank into Jordan.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, with whom Trump said he would speak on Sunday, has repeatedly warned that said displacement would aim to “eradicate the cause for Palestinian statehood.”
El-Sisi has described the prospect as a “red line” that would threaten Egypt’s national security.
The Egyptian foreign ministry on Sunday urged the implementation of the “two-state solution,” which Cairo has said would become impossible if Palestinians were removed from their territories.
Jordanian, Turkish foreign ministers discuss Gaza, Syria
- Chief diplomats affirm support for independent, sovereign Palestinian state
- Discussions also focus on security, reconstruction of Syria
LONDON: Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Monday spoke with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan about the latest developments in Syria and the Gaza Strip.
The chief diplomats emphasized the urgent need for adequate humanitarian aid to Gaza and the importance of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that ended 15 months of warfare in the enclave.
Both ministers affirmed their support for an independent and sovereign Palestinian state within the armistice lines of the pre-1967 Middle East war, with East Jerusalem as its capital, the Petra news agency reported.
They said that a two-state solution, with Palestinians and Israelis living peacefully side by side, is the only way to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the region.
The ministers also discussed the security and reconstruction of Syria after more than a decade of civil war that devastated the country’s economy.
Israel says 8 hostages due for release in first phase of truce are dead
- That means that of the 26 hostages yet to be freed under the first phase of the agreement, only 18 are still alive
- Under the first phase of the agreement, 33 hostages held by militants in Gaza are to be released in exchange for more than 1,900 Palestinians held by Israel
JERUSALEM: Eight of the hostages due for release in the first phase of a truce deal between Israel and Hamas are dead, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Monday.
“The families have been informed of the situation of their relatives,” Mencer told reporters, without providing the names of the deceased.
That means that of the 26 hostages yet to be freed under the first phase of the agreement, only 18 are still alive.
The truce deal, announced earlier in January after months of fruitless negotiations, took effect on January 19, bringing to a halt more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
Under the first phase of the agreement, 33 hostages held by militants in Gaza are to be released in exchange for more than 1,900 Palestinians held by Israel.
Seven Israeli women have been released since the start of the truce, as have 290 Palestinian prisoners.
