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PEOPLES’ Democratic Party (HDP) MP Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu challenged Turkish police today to arrest him in parliament after the Supreme Court dismissed his appeal against a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence.
He warned the Turkish state that it would “pay the price” if its agents tried to take him by force.
Mr Gergerlioglu insisted that the decision to remove his immunity and jail him was unlawful, adding that he had been targeted for raising in parliament the issue of women prisoners being strip-searched.
“They did not give me any answers about the strip-search. But people are being strip-searched in Turkey,” he said.
“People are being tortured. The government sees clearly that the authorities are lying and is trying to cover it up.”
Mr Gergerlioglu is accused of “spreading terrorist propaganda” in a tweet posted earlier this year.
The HDP is under growing pressure amid calls by the neofascist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) for the government to close it down.
