Court releases HDP lawmaker İdris Baluken

A Diyarbakır court on Jan. 30 ordered the release of İdris Baluken, the deputy group chairman and lawmaker of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) from Diyarbakır, after nearly three months in jail. 

The Diyarbakır 8th Court of Serious Crimes ordered the release of Baluken on probation in his first hearing, citing that evidence had been gathered, and previous criteria set out by the Constitutional Court regarding the arrest of deputies had been taken into consideration. 

A lawsuit had been filed against Baluken, which demanded imprisonment with aggravated life sentence as well as up to 23 years in prison over four separate charges, including having links to terrorism.

Baluken was among 12 deputies who were detained on Nov. 4, 2016, including the party's co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, but was the first among them to be formally arrested by court.  

He had been brought to the eastern province of Bingöl after being detained at the HDP's headquarters in Ankara late on Nov. 4. He was arrested on the same day in the afternoon by a court in Bingöl.