Mehmet Melih Okyayi, mayor of Eruh (Peace and Democracy Party, BDP), has been sentenced to six years three months in prison by Diyarbakir 5th High Criminal Court for committing a crime without being member of an illegal organization.

He had been sentenced on charges related to the First Eruh Ciray Nature and Art Festival.

He is now supposed to serve a total of ten years in prison because of organizing a festival. He was the president of the festival organization committee. All of its members have been under trial.

Mayor Okyayi considered the conviction as political and said that “we had had the permission of the Governorship for the festival and our major goal was to introduce our district’s culture, nature and traditions. I believe that this sentence is political and is to be read in the wider context of the policy to suppress the Kurdish people. “