Turkish court orders release of Kurdish MP after 11 weeks on hunger strike

A Turkish court on Friday Jan 25,2019 ordered the supervised release of a detained lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) who is seriously ill as a result of her 11-week hunger strike. 

Leyla Guven, 55, launched a hunger strike on November 8 in protest at the prison conditions for Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan and her deteriorating health has sparked concerns and rallies to support her cause.

The MP will be monitored after she is freed, the court in Diyarbakir in the Kurdish majority southeast said, although few further details of the terms of her release are yet available.

Guven, whose party has said is suffering a "life-threatening" medical condition, did not attend the hearing

She was arrested in January 2018 for her criticism of Turkey's military operation against a Syrian Kurdish militia that Ankara considers an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The MP started the hunger strike in prison and her action was supported by more than 150 prisoners across Turkey in a show of solidarity.

Guven's hunger strike was aimed at pressuring the government into allowing lawyers and family members to visit PKK leader Ocalan, who has been serving a life sentence on an island prison near Istanbul since his capture in 1999.