Upon appeal, Turkish court arrests assailant who attacked HDP office

An Istanbul court on Jan. 10 ordered the arrest of an assailant who attacked the HDP's Bahçeliever district office in December, just one week after releasing him from detention over the same charges. The decision came upon the prosecutors' appeal, the content of which remains unknown due to the confidentiality order imposed on the case file.

Monday January 10 2022 04:22 pm

Duvar English

An Istanbul court on Jan. 10 ordered the arrest of an assailant who attacked a district branch of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) last month, Mezopotamya news agency reported.

Muhammed Eren Sütçü was released from detention on Jan. 3, despite staging an attack against the HDP's Bahçelievler district branch and wounding two people. The Istanbul 3rd Criminal Court of Peace had placed him under house arrest.

On Dec. 28, Sütçü stormed the HDP office and threatened to kill the party members. Carrying a knife and a gun, Sütçü injured Ramazan Dışarı and Aziz Şimşek.

Afterwards, authorities brought a confidentiality order to the investigation file.

Prosecutors objected to Sütçü's release from custody; however, due to the confidentiality order, it is not yet known what the appeal focused on.

The court on Jan. 10 ruled that the assailant be jailed.

The Dec. 28 incident was the second attack on an HDP building in 2021. In June, a gunman stormed the HDP’s office in the Aegean province of İzmir province, killing a female employee.

HDP officials have been pointing out that it is the government officials who have the ultimate responsibility for these attacks as they have been targeting the party in their speeches for a long time now.