Turkish court orders temporary freeze of Kurdish party funds

Turkey's highest court on Thursday ordered a temporary freeze on the funds of the country's pro-Kurdish party as it mulls whether to disband it over accusations of links to Kurdish militants.

The decision comes weeks after a top prosecutor asked Turkey's Constitutional Court to block bank accounts from which the Treasury disburses funds to the Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP - the country's third biggest.

The prosecutor is separately seeking to shut the party down on terror-related charges in a move seen as part of a growing crackdown on the opposition in the run-up to elections likely to be held before June.

The Constitutional Court gave the HDP a month to present arguments against the prosecutor's demand.

The Treasury provides financial assistance to political parties represented in parliament, and the HDP was set to receive 539 million Turkish lira ...