The second development was that on 19 August 2019 elected mayors of the three metropolitan cities Diyarbakır, Mardin and Van (all of them from HDP) – i.e. the most populous cities in the southeast and eastern provinces, and the only metropolitan cities with HDP mayors – were suspended from office by order of the Ministry of the Interior and replaced by the governors of those regions as “trustees”. These decisions were said to be based on the fact that terrorism-related criminal investigations and prosecutions had been launched against the mayors. The Ministry of the Interior referred to Article 127 of the Constitution and to Articles 45 and 47 of the Municipality Law No. 5393; relevant provisions of the Emergency Decree Law No. 674 allowing for such replacements had been incorporated in Article 45 of the Municipality Law in November 2016. The Ministry published a statement which includes the text of the decisions of 19 August 2019. The mayors concerned filed appeals to the local administrative courts where they are still pending. As for the criminal proceedings, one of the three mayors concerned – the mayor of the metropolitan city Mardin – was acquitted by court decision of 14 February 2020 of some charges that had led to his suspension but at the time of finalisation of this report he had not yet been reinstated to office; in their comments on the draft opinion the Turkish Government indicated that part of the investigation and prosecution against him was still ongoing. By court decision of 9 March 2020, the mayor of the metropolitan city Diyarbakır was sentenced to imprisonment of 9 years, 4 months and 15 days.