A Turkish court sentenced a pro-Kurdish party mayor in southeastern Turkey to nearly 20 years in prison on Wednesday for links to PKK militants, local media reported.

Mehmet Siddiq Akis, 53, the mayor of Hakkari province that borders Iran and Iraq, was arrested on Monday and accused of having a high-level role in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group.

“I know the trial is political,” Akis said in his testimony at the Hakkari Criminal Court on Wednesday, denying the charges.

The pro-Kurdish DEM Party, the third largest party in parliament, to which Akis belongs, told X that the verdict was “null and void”. The Turkish authorities accuse the DEM Party of having ties to the PKK, which it denies.

Akis was replaced on Monday by the state governor, two months after he won power in local elections.

After previous municipal elections, Turkey arrested pro-Kurdish mayors, removing them from their posts and replacing them with state officials accused of ties to the PKK.

In local elections on March 31, DEM confirmed its regional power, winning 10 provinces in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.

The PKK has been designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Over 40,000 people have been killed in the PKK’s insurgency against the Turkish state, which began in 1984.