TURKEY’S jailed former opposition party leader Figen Yuksekdag said “people power” would never be defeated after she was fined for “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday.

The court in Van province issued the 1,740 Turkish Lira (£222.69) judicial fine after Ms Yukeskdag had given her final defence on Tuesday.

Ms Yuksekdag is the former co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and has been in prison since November 2016 when she was arrested as part of a series of raids on the homes of elected politicians.

She faces aggravated life in prison on trumped-up terror charges, but insisted: “A truth, an idea cannot be punished by being imprisoned for years.”

The revolutionary Marxist said she would not be intimidated into silence, promising the people of Turkey would continue to resist “against a tyrant.

“There is a power greater than Erdogan in this country and it is the people.
 
“We will never be defeated. We will resist with courage and perseverance against those who tyrannise us … We will win very big and they will be called to account before history.”