Turkey's Constitutional Court has handed down its decision regarding the application of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır MP Semra Güzel, who appealed against the Parliamentary decision lifting her legislative immunity following a vote at the General Assembly.

The court has rejected Güzel's request for the annulment of the decision of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM).

In lifting the legislative immunity of the MP, the MPs of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the İYİ Party also voted in favor, in addition to the MPs of the ruling alliance, AKP and MHP.

With her legislative immunity lifted on March 1, 2022, Güzel appealed to the Constitutional Court and demanded the annulment of the two decisions, lifting her immunity in line with the two summaries of proceedings.

The General Assembly of the Constitutional Court discussed these two separate decisions today. Merging the two applications, the top court has concluded that the related decisions of the Parliament are not contrary to the Constitution, laws or the Parliamentary by-law. The Constitutional Court has unanimously rejected the application of HDP's Semra Güzel.

In the event that the Parliament decides to lift the legislative immunity of an MP, the Constitutional Court gives a final ruling on the appeals demanding the annulment of the decision. After the justification of the Constitutional Court's ruling of rejection is written, the process is completed.

Background

Kurdish politician Semra Güzel has been sitting in the Turkish National Assembly for the HDP since the early parliamentary elections in June 2018. In late February, she was stripped of her political immunity. In the vote, 313 MPs from the other parliamentary groups voted for the lifting of immunity, while 52 MPs voted against. Güzel's parliamentary group left the chamber after the decision amid loud protests.

Semra Güzel is facing a long prison sentence. The groundwork for this was laid by an elaborate and state-directed defamation campaign against the 38-year-old, the starting point of which were photos showing Güzel with the guerrilla fighter Volkan Bora (Nom de Guerre: Koçero Meletî). The photos were taken in 2014 in a guerrilla camp in southern Kurdistan, when a delegation of the HDP visited the PKK with state knowledge as part of the peace process to discuss further steps towards de-escalation.

HPG guerrilla Volkan Bora, who died in April 2017 during Turkish air strikes in the province of Adıyaman, was Güzel's former fiancé. From the pictures with him, the Turkish prosecuting authorities construct accusations such as "membership in a terrorist organisation" and "financing terrorism" against the politician. Allegedly, Güzel visited PKK camps in Southern Kurdistan several times, even after the resumption of fighting. The HDP said that the defamation campaign was a propaganda manoeuvre in the course of the proceedings to ban the party.

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