On 1 March 2022, the legislative immunity of Semra Güzel was lifted by a parliamentary vote. On 3 September, Semra Güzel was unlawfully arrested after being targeted by a political lynching campaign.

On 22 December, Güzel was stripped of her status as a member of parliament in a parliamentary vote on the grounds that she had failed to attend parliamentary sessions for a long time. The Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the IYI (Good) Party voted for stripping Güzel of her MP status. She is still behind bars.

The second hearing in the trial of Semra Güzel was held at the Ankara 22nd Heavy Penal Court on Monday. The female politician, who lost her relatives in the Maraş-centred earthquake on February 6, was not present at the hearing which was attended by many lawyers.

Lawyer Senem Doğanoğlu demanded that the case be dismissed.

Lawyer Arzu Eylem Kayaoğlu emphasized that the constitution was being violated through the courts.

Lawyer Sinem Coşkun said: “My client has been subjected to political lynching.”

The court board adjourned the hearing to 28 April, ruling that Güzel remain in prison, the documents of the Constitutional Court applications be submitted to the court, and Güzel be allowed to make first defence in the next hearing.

BACKGROUND

The main accusation against Semra Güzel is based on photographs taken of her together with her fiancé, Volkan Bora, in a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) camp in Iraq in 2014. The photographs were taken during the peace process between the Turkish government and the PKK that took place from 2013 to 2015. Güzel visited a PKK camp in 2014 and took photographs with her fiancé, who had joined the PKK in 2009 when they were still students at Harran University. During the peace process, many HDP leaders, including the party’s co-chairs, visited the PKK headquarters in Iraq, and met and took photographs with PKK leaders.

These meetings with the PKK took place at the formal request of the Turkish government as part of peace negotiations. In this same period, the Turkish government encouraged Kurdish families to meet with family members in the PKK to convince them to support a peaceful settlement and to return home. 

Güzel stands trial on charges of "membership of a terrorist organisation". In the 58-page indictment, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office accuses the 38-year-old Kurdish woman of being part of the "hierarchy" within the PKK. The "evidence" for the accusation is mainly statements made by an anonymous witness with the alias "Ezel". He is alleged to have recognised Güzel as an "activist" of the Kurdish women's movement TJA as well as the grassroots alliance DTK in photos as early as August 2018, only a few weeks after the parliamentary elections in Turkey, during a prosecutorial interrogation at the anti-terrorism headquarters of the Diyarbakır (ku. Amed) police. Both organisations are legal in Turkey, yet they are treated as a "PKK structure" and criminalised.