Van- Northern Kurdistan: The Turkish High Court detained DIHA reporter Çiftçi and 10 more Kurds under the charges of “connection to Democratic Confederation of Kurdistan (KCK).
Cemil Akgül, a young man who voiced his objection to the detentions, got severely injured on his head.
The Dicle News Agency (DIHA) reporter for the Kurdish province of Hakkari, Hamdiye Çiftçi, and 10 more Kurds were detained on 13 June because of alleged connections to the KCK, the umbrella organisation of Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK).
The Van 3rd High Criminal Court arrested 11 Kurds during raids on their homes, among them journalists Çiftçi and executives of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). Protests erupted in Hakkari as the repercussions of the detentions.
The people detained by the Van local court are BDP Hakkari Provincial Chair M. Siddik Şahin, BDP headquarters executive Izzet Belge, central district chair Seyhan Şahin, members of the provincial directorate Emine Akboga, Hüsna Sagan and Fatma Duman, former provincial chair of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP, closed by the Constitutional Court in December 2009) Hivzullah Kansu, former DTP Şemdil provincial chair Emrullah Öztürk, Tahir Koç and one other person.