Turkish authorities ordered on Friday the release of Leyla Guven, a jailed Kurdish lawmaker, following the deterioration of her health after she kicked off a hunger strike eleven weeks ago.
Guven, 55, was arrested in January 2018 for her criticism of Turkey's military operation against Syria’s US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), viewed by Ankara as terrorist. The YPG is an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Though expected to walk free later on Friday, Guven still faces trial and up to 31 years' jail over charges of terrorism leadership and propaganda for her opposition to Turkey's incursion into northwest Syria's Afrin region.
The judge in the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakir decided to release Guven given she had already been in custody for a year.
Her health has deteriorated during a 79-day hunger strike to protest against the prison isolation of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, those close to her say.
Guven was among some 600 people detained over social media posts and protests criticizing Turkey's operation last year into Afrin.
Last June, she was elected as a member of parliament for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) while in detention.
The HDP supporters gathered outside the Diyarbakir prison and used buses and barricades to try to stop photographers from taking pictures of the ailing MP.
"The authorities should not have waited for her to reach death's door," Mehmet Cekikoglu, one of the supporters, told AFP.
Ramazan Yakar, another party faithful, said Guven's release did not solve their problems, noting, "there are still many others held behind the bars".
Guven has been consuming water with sugar and salt and vitamin supplements. The HDP says 250 inmates in various jails and politicians have joined the hunger strike.
Guven is also co-leader of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), an umbrella group of civil society organizations based in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
Ankara has accused both the HDP and DTK of links to the PKK.
They deny ties to the PKK, which has waged an armed insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union. Turkey captured PKK leader Ocalan in 1999 and jailed him on an island south of Istanbul.
