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Turkish court ruled to continue jailing 17 Kurdish children – report

This article originally appeared in Ahval.

A Turkish court has decided to continue imprisonment of 17 Kurdish children arrested in Nusaybin district of the southeastern city of Mardin following the military curfew in 2016, pro-Kurdish news agency Mezopotamya reported on Friday.

The children were stuck in a house in Nusaybin during the clashes between the extensions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Turkish security forces in May 2016 and later arrested. A prosecutor asked 76 times of heavy life sentences for each child at the first hearing.

At the fourth hearing of the trial, one of the jailed children was brought to the courtroom while another was forced to attend the trial via closed-circuit camera system (SEGBİS). The rest of the children could not give their statements because of SEGBİS connection could not be established.

The court has decided to keep the children arrested and postponed the verdict to Nov. 15.

The lawyers of the children said there was no evidence of the children involved in the clashes against TSK as the prosecutor claimed it, Mezopotamya agency said.

Some pro-Kurdish outlet reported that the previous trial was marked by the claims that the children were tortured by the Turkish security forces.

In August 2015, Turkish authorities declared curfews in mainly Kurdish-populated cities across southeastern Turkey. Some of the curfews lasted months while some of them continue. Nearly 1.5 million people have been affected by the curfews, according to human rights organisations.


This article was originally published in Ahval.

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