Criminal group leader 'hasn't testified yet' for his threats to main opposition leader

Bahçeli (r) visiting Çakıcı at the hospital in 2018. (Photo: MHP)

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Alaattin Çakıcı, who served 20 years in prison for leading an "organized criminal group" and was released in April, has said that he has yet to give testimony to prosecutors about his earlier threats against the main opposition party's leader.

He will testify as soon as he is summoned by prosecutors, he said in a Twitter post this morning (December 15).

Çakıcı's statement came a day after Faik Öztrak, the spokesperson for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), asked the government whether Çakıcı's statement was taken.

CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in mid-November filed a criminal complaint against Çakıcı after he insulted and threatened him with death in an open letter on Twitter.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (CHP) had announced that an investigation was opened.

In his new statement, Çakıcı claimed that the opposition was trying to undermine the ruling "People's Alliance," which is formed by the AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Çakıcı has close relations to MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli, who publicly backed him after his threats to Kılıçdaroğlu and called him a "comrade."

Çakıcı also accused the CHP of cooperating with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and serving the "western imperialism."

"You know as well that this nation doesn't call you, who attack the People's Alliance by insulting it in the supreme parliament, nationalists but local collaborators who are the servants of the West," said Çakıcı.

Çakıcı was released from prison after a controversial criminal enforcement law passed. (EMK/VK)