Only two remain arrested in KCK case after 30 more releases

A Diyarbakır court has released 30 of the 32 arrested suspects in the main case against the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the urban wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The Diyarbakır 2nd High Criminal Court, which had taken over the case from the 6th High Criminal Court after Specially Authorized Courts were abolished in February, released the suspects on July 1, on the grounds of the time they served in prison.

New legislation prepared by the government that was accepted by Parliament in early 2014 had reduced the pre-trial detention limit from 10 to five years.

Necdet Atalay, former mayor of the southeastern province of Batman, and Zülküf Karatekin, former mayor of the Kayapınar district in the province of Diyarbakır, are among the suspects who were released with the latest verdict.

“Being a member and manager of a terrorist organization” was among the charges directed in the prosecution’s 7,578-page-long indictment on Atalay and Karatekin, who were arrested on April 14, 2009.

The same court decided on June 28 to release Hatip Dicle, a leading member of the Kurdish problem-focused Democracy Party (DEP), which was banned by the Constitutional Court in 1994, as well as Hüsamettin Çiçek, former deputy mayor of the Bağlar district of the Diyarbakır province.