Parliamentary Debate on Bill of Criminal Enforcement Completed

* Photo: Özge Elif Kızıl - Ankara/AA - ** News: AA

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The Parliamentary debate on the bill of criminal enforcement was completed at the General Assembly of the Parliament yesterday (April 8).

Drafted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the "The Bill of Law Foreseeing Amendments to the Law no. 2/2762 on the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures and Some Laws" was approved by the Parliamentary Justice Commission on April 3 and started to be debated at the General Assembly on April 7.

Referring to the draft law in the session, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Group Deputy Chair Meral Danış-Beştaş said that 90 thousand people would be released as per the law debated at the Parliament and the ones not bowing to the AKP would be put behind bars in their place. Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) İstanbul MP Zeynel Emre also noted that the bill was not about criminal enforcement, but foresaw an amnesty.

AKP Group Deputy Chair Cahit Özkan, on the other hand, stated, "If we are demanded to decriminalize terror propaganda for organizations such as the PKK, FETÖ, YPG, DHKP-C* and DEASH, we are against it to the end." Parliamentary Justice Commission Deputy Chair Yılmaz Tunç also said, "It is not right to define terror crimes as political crimes."

Danış-Beştaş: 90 thousand people will be released, replaced by those not bowing to AKP

Taking the floor to comment on the bill of law on criminal enforcement, HDP Group Deputy Chair Meral Danış-Beştaş underlined that the bill in question was not drafted 6 or 7 months ago, but the government had long been preparing to bring it to the Parliamentary agenda.

"At a time when people struggle for their lives, this critical bill on criminal enforcement has been brought to Parliament," Danış-Beştaş said and underlined that the bill foresaw no differentiation between arrestees and convicts and had no arrangement as to arrestees:

"In fact, as per the Law on Criminal Courts, there is no obstacle to the release of arrestees. The bill foresees three separate regimes of execution.

"The tactic of release and catch has been incorporated into this law. 90 thousand convicts indicated by them will be released and they will be replaced by the ones not bowing to the AKP."

Concluding her remarks, she stressed that "while some part of prisoners would be released, another part would be condemned to death."

Emre: Not a bill of criminal execution, but amnesty

Taking the floor in the Parliamentary session, main opposition CHP İstanbul MP Zeynel Emre noted that the bill that they were debating was not related to criminal enforcement, but meant an amnesty law.

Underlining that reduced prison sentences were defined as pardons and the bill was about granting a mass pardon, Emre briefly said:

"The state will be accountable for any losses of life that might occur in prisons due to the outbreak. We cannot look at it from a political point of view. We have to defend the right to life.

"The legal regulation that we will enact shall, at least, conform to objective criteria. Don't pass a legislation that will further aggravate injustice in Turkey and prick public conscience by circumventing the law."

Özkan: We worked with MHP for around a year

AKP Group Deputy Chair Cahit Özkan said that they drafted the bill by jointly working with the MHP for almost a year:

"Within this context, we also visited political party groups. As no agreement could be reached with other political party groups, we, as the AK Party and MHP, drafted our bill of law in a way that will be welcomed by the conscience of our nation and that represents the ideal which needs to be observed. In drafting this bill, we considered the existing principles in the contemporary criminal enforcement systems.

"If we are demanded to decriminalize the propaganda for terrorist organizations such as the PKK, FETÖ, YPG, DHKP-C* and DEASH, we are against it to the end."

'Terror crimes cannot be defined as political crimes'

Parliamentary Justice Commission Deputy Chair Yılmaz Tunç answered the questions of MPs regarding the bill of law.

"It should not be confused with an amnesty. It is about a conditional release and supervised release," Tunç said. In response to another question, he noted that "it was not right to define terror crimes as political crimes."

Tunç also stated, "It can look like an article, it can look like the expression of a thought, but it is not an expression of a thought. If the expression of a thought incites violence, violates the criteria of open and close danger, it is naturally not protected in any democratic state of law. It is a crime."

Vote to be held at 2 p.m. today

After the debate on the bill was completed, Parliamentary Deputy Speaker Levent Gök said that he would put it to vote to pass to the articles of the bill. HDP Group Deputy Chair Danış-Beştaş requested a roll-call.

In response to this request, Gök said that the quorum for the meeting was not reached and recessed the session. As the necessary number of MPs for the meeting was still not reached, Levent Gök closed the session to convene again at 2 p.m. today. (EKN/SD)

* Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), People's Protection Units (YPG) and Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C)