Special Report: How Turkey’s courts turned on Erdogan's foes

FILE PHOTO: Police detain Sebahat Tuncel, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), during a protest against the arrest of Kurdish lawmakers, in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, November 4, 2016. To match Special Report TURKEY-JUDGES/ REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - It took 16 judges to convict Kurdish politicians Gultan Kisanak and Sebahat Tuncel of belonging to a terrorist organization last year.

Their trial in Diyarbakir, the biggest city in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast, was concluded in just a dozen sessions, but during that time the three-judge panel was in constant flux. The women, who maintain their innocence, were brought to court only once - to hear the "guilty" verdict.