Deputy Speaker of Turkish Parliament detained
Turkish police detained the deputy speaker of the country’s parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Sputnik news reports citing the statement released by the party.
“Deputy Speaker of the Turkish parliament, our lawmaker Pervin Buldan, was illegally detained in her Istanbul home,” the party said in a statement obtained by RIA Novosti.
Ayhan Bilgen, spokesman for the Peoples' Democratic Party, HDP, told The Associated Press that Buldan was taken away for questioning from her home in Istanbul early on Friday, U.S. News reports.
The state-run Anadolu Agency said she was detained over an on-going investigation into her activities.
Turkey's government accuses the HDP, the nation's third-largest party, of links to the outlawed Kurdish rebels — an accusation the party rejects.
Notably in May, parliament voted to strip lawmakers of their legal immunity, paving the way for the HDP legislators' arrests.
A total of 12 HDP legislators have been jailed on terrorism-related charges since then, including co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.