Turkey seeks jail terms for 97 over student protests

ISTANBUL: Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday demanded jail terms for 97 people who joined student protests against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s appointment of a party loyalist as the rector of a top university. The indictment said the suspects defied a ban on rallies imposed as part of measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the Anadolu state news agency said.

Prosecutors are seeking jail terms from six months to three years because of the suspects’ non-compliance with a law on "unarmed participation in unlawful rallies and refusal to disperse despite the warnings", Anadolu said. No date was given for the first hearing.