The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has signed a bill lifting lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution – a constitutional change likely to remove a pro-Kurdish opposition party from parliament. Erdoğan has accused the pro-Kurdish HDP, parliament’s third-biggest party, of being the political wing of militants who have waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s largely Kurdish south-east. Of those, 101 are from the HDP or Turkey’s main opposition party CHP. Related: Istanbul bomb attack on police vehicle kills 11Lawmakers have until now enjoyed immunity from prosecution. The new law allows prosecutors to pursue any of the 138 members of parliament who are currently under investigation.

Source: The Guardian June 08, 2016 00:33 UTC