MORE than 50 political leaders from around the world have joined forces today to criticise the Turkish government’s continued legal assault on the the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The left-wing party has long faced a campaign of legal harassment. A total of 108 leaders of the party are on trial over a tweet posted in 2014 in solidarity with the mainly Kurdish population of the Syrian town of Kobane. 

The party’s bank accounts have been frozen and it faces possible closure through the courts. 

The letter is organised by the Progressive International (PI), a global network of progressive parties, movements, unions and campaigns. 

Signatories to the letter include French Presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, The Left co-chair Janine Wissler and Britain’s former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Presidential elections in Turkey have been set for May 14.

But the letter warns that the banning of the HDP so close to the elections places Turkish democracy in “dire jeopardy.” 

The signatories say that PI defends “the HDP’s right to freedom of association, expression, peaceful assembly and participation in the upcoming elections.” 

They said: “It is time to end the legal attacks against the HDP now, once and for all.”