Emine Esmer, the co-mayor of Şırnak’s Silopi district, who was elected on the ticket of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was taken into custody by the police Friday morning, the Doğan news agency reported.
Esmer was detained, along with her driver Cemal Yiğit, while she was at the mayoral building. Esmer and Yiğit were taken to a police station. While the cause of the detention remains unknown, the pair had been briefly apprehended in late February on a number of charges such as being a member of an outlawed organization, malpractice and enabling an outlawed organization to utilize public property. They had both been released pending trial by a court.