By Cankut Tasdan
ANKARA (AA) - Police on Tuesday arrested a parliamentary group leader of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
A court in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, had issued an arrest warrant on Friday for Idris Baluken after he was released by a lower court on Jan. 30.
He had spent nearly three months in prison on terrorism-related charges.
Baluken was among at least a dozen of the party’s lawmakers arrested in November 2016 after their parliamentary immunity was lifted.
The 1st High Criminal Court in Diyarbakir on Friday accepted a prosecution appeal against Baluken's release.
He faces aggravated life imprisonment on charges of disrupting the unity of the state's territorial integrity, membership of an armed terrorist group, spreading terrorist propaganda and taking part in unauthorized meetings and marches.
The government has accused the HDP of having links to the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU.
Some HDP deputies, including party leaders Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas, were also arrested in November after they failed to answer summonses to testify as part of a counter-terrorism investigation.
Demirtas and Yuksekdag remain in custody alongside several other lawmakers.