Turkish authorities sentence another Pro-Kurdish DEM Party mayor to prison

Siirt Co-Mayor Sofya Alağaş of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party has been sentenced to six years in prison on charges of "membership in a terrorist organization." The charges stemmed from her activities during her time as a journalist.

Duvar English

Turkey’s eastern Siirt province’s Co-Mayor Sofya Alağaş from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, who faced charges of "membership in a terrorist organization" stemming from her work as a journalist, was sentenced to six years and three months in prison during the seventh hearing of her trial on Jan. 28.

Speaking outside the Diyarbakır Courthouse after the verdict, Alağaş, who did not attend the hearing, said, “This is an attack on the will of the Kurdish people. We didn’t give up yesterday, we didn’t give up today, and we won’t give up tomorrow. This court has once again confirmed the state’s hostility toward Kurds.”

Claiming the trial was “expedited,” Alağaş stated, “There were incomplete files and investigations that should have been merged, but the court disregarded all of this, sped up the process, and issued its ruling. You refuse to recognize Kurdish journalists, dismiss them, and then say, ‘We’ll live together in this country.’ How is that possible? We are living in a big lie,” she said.

The case in which Alağaş was sentenced originated from a 2022 investigation targeting 15 journalists, including editors and reporters from Mezopotamya News Agency and Jin News, on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization.”

After spending a year in prison, Alağaş was released following the first hearing, and her case was separated from that of the other journalists.

Defending against the prosecutor's final arguments, Alağaş’s lawyers argued that the case was initiated due to his client’s journalistic activities and claimed there had been “political interference” in the proceedings.

“Up until the previous hearing, the case was proceeding normally. The withdrawal of certain decisions and the hearing of a secret witness during the sixth session indicate political intervention in this case,” her lawyer said, asserting that the trial targeted Alağaş for her work as a journalist.

Alağaş, a member of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, was elected mayor in the 2024 local elections with 49.63% of the vote. Her closest competitor, the candidate from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), received 37.13%.