The AYM ruled that Gergerlioglu's rights to run in elections and engage in politics as well as his right to free expression were violated.

“The ruling on my father is now official after being published on the AYM’s website,” the former deputy’s son Salih Gergerlioglu said in a tweet.

According to Ahval news website the former deputy, who had chaired a prominent human rights watchdog for years before running for parliament, has not yet been released from prison as the ruling has not been received by the local court that ordered his arrest, Salih Gergerlioglu said in another tweet.

“My father should not be held in prison for one more minute,” he added.

Gergerlioglu was stripped of his status on March 17, weeks after a Turkish court upheld a conviction over spreading terrorist propaganda. The propaganda in question was a newspaper article the former deputy posted on his social media account that included a statement by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that has been at war in Turkey for Kurdish autonomy for almost 40 years.

On April 2, Gergerlioglu was sent to prison to serve his sentence, after a brief stint at the hospital over health complications.

The AYM’s ruling on Gergerlioglu was identical to that on Enis Berberoglu, another former deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) who was stripped of his parliamentary status in June last year, BBC Turkish reported, citing sources close to the parliamentary speaker’s office.

The ruling may allow for Gergerlioglu to be reinstated as member of the Turkish parliament.

Berberoglu returned to his duties as deputy in February, eight months after he was dismissed.

Several prominent members of the HDP, including former co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, are currently behind bars over various terrorism charges, while 108 members -including all members of a former central executive committee- stand accused of inciting street protests that resulted in the death of more than 30 people in 2014.

The protests, known as the Kobani Incidents, also form the basis of a lawsuit against the HDP to shut the party down.

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