MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Turkish parliament has passed a controversial new anti-dissent law Friday, giving the police expanded abilities to suppress demonstrators, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The bill proposed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was backed by 199 Turkish lawmakers with 32 voting against the measure.
The 69-article law allows police to shoot protesters who throw Molotov cocktails or use other arbitrarily-defined weaponry and allows law enforcement to detain people for up to 48 hours without prosecutor permission. It also authorizes four years imprisonment for protesters who cover their faces with masks.
Turkey has seen a number of mass protests in recent years, including the demonstrations of Kurdish population which in October 2014 resulted in death of 42 people.
