Turkey convicts Kurdish leader Demirtas over Kobani protests

A Turkish court sentenced jailed Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas to more than 20 years in prison on Thursday, alongside other party officials, for instigating 2014 protests triggered by an Islamic State attack on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.

The verdict was likely to fuel political tensions in Turkey around Demirtas' pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which the state has targeted in a years-long crackdown and which is facing potential closure in a separate court case.

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