A top Turkish court will consider banning Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) after a temporary freeze on the funds of the party.
The Turkish constitutional court will convene a hearing today on Tuesday (January 10) to decide whether to close the HDP six months before the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
The court hearing comes five days after it decided to suspended funding for the country’s main majority-Kurdish party over alleged ties to “terrorism.”
However, a spokesman for the party said the decision was illegal and Turkey does not respect constitutional and human rights.
In December, Turkey’s chief prosecutor Bekir Sahin asked Turkey’s Constitutional Court to block bank accounts from which the Treasury disburses funds to the HDP.
The Constitutional Court gave the HDP a month to present arguments against the prosecutor’s demand.
The Treasury provides financial assistance to political parties represented in parliament, and the HDP was set to receive 539 million Turkish lira (some $29 million) this year, according to media reports.
HDP spokeswoman Ebru Gunay criticized the court’s decision, accusing it of “being a tool” of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s campaign to “seize the will of the peoples of Turkey.”