Prosecutor seeks up to 28 years in prison for Turkish mayor

Turkey's southeastern city Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir faces up to 28 years in prison on charges of spreading propaganda for the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and committing a crime on behalf of the organization without holding membership, local newspaper Today's Zaman reported Tuesday. An indictment filed against Baydemir by the Diyarbakir Public Prosecutor's Office was accepted by the Diyarbakir 7th High Criminal Court on Tuesday, said the report. The indictment said that Baydemir, a member of Turkey's pro- Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), attended the funeral of seven PKK members in April 2011 in Diyarbakir, accusing Baydemir of spreading propaganda for the PKK in a demonstration held in Diyarbakir to protest the killing of the seven PKK militants by Turkish security forces. Stating that Baydemir most recently attended another protest against the capture of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya on Feb. 15, 1999, the indictment accused Baydemir of showing solidarity with Ocalan and spreading propaganda for the PKK during this demonstration as well. Listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, the PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. More than 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the PKK during the past over two decades.