Turkey convicts former pro-Kurdish party officials over 2014 Kobani protests

A Turkish court sentenced former pro-Kurdish party leader Selahattin Demirtas to more than 40 years in jail on Thursday for instigating protests in 2014 triggered by an Islamic State attack on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.

Another pro-Kurdish party leader, Figen Yuksekdag, was sentenced to just over 30 years in jail.

The verdict was likely to fuel political tensions in Turkey around their Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which could be ordered to shut down in a separate court case and has been succeeded in parliament by another pro-Kurdish party.

Defence lawyers and observers in the courtroom, in a prison complex on the outskirts of the capital Ankara, banged tables and chanted "Long live the resistance of HDP" and "Long live the resistance of Kobani" in Kurdish when the chief judge began to read the verdict.

Thirty-seven people died in the 2014 protests, which were triggered by accusations that Turkey's army stood by as the ultra-hardline Islamic State militants besieged Kobani, a Syrian border town in plain view of Turkey.

Many other senior HDP figures were convicted among a total of 108 defendants, charged with 29 offences including homicide and harming the unity of the Turkish state. Some of the defendants were acquitted. The HDP denied the charges.

Prosecutors had sought 38 "aggravated life" sentences without parole in relation to the deaths. The trial did not begin until April 2021 and was dismissed by the defendants and defence lawyers as a political case.

Demirtas has been in prison since November 2016 on terrorism related charges but remains one of Turkey's most influential political figures. He and Yuksekdag were among 18 defendants already in jail.

Critics say Turkish courts are under the influence of the government and President Tayyip Erdogan, claims that he and his AK Party deny.

In 2020, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkey must immediately release Demirtas, saying his rights, including freedom of expression and liberty, were being violated.

Facing the prospect of closure, the HDP regrouped last year under the banner of the DEM Party, parliament's third-largest party.