Constitutional Court rejects application against Gergerlioğlu's expulsion from parliament

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The Constitutional Court has rejected an application demanding the annulment of the revocation of the parliamentary status of Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

In a unanimous decision, the top court rejected the application due to lack of jurisdiction, stating that the Constitution does not allow applications to the Constitutional Court in terms of paragraph 2 of article 84 about the loss of parliamentary membership through a final judicial sentence or deprivation of legal capacity.

Gergerlioğlu was stripped of his parliamentary status on March 17, after the Court of Cassation approved his prison sentence for "terror propaganda" because of a Twitter post.

HDP deputy Erdol Katırcıoğlu then took the case to the Constitutional Court.

Gergerlioğlu also had made a separate application, which the court said will be examined later.

What happened?

HDP Kocaeli MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu was sentenced to 2 years, 6 months in prison on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" on February 21, 2018 on the grounds of a social media post from 2016. This ruling given by the Kocaeli 2nd Heavy Penal Court has recently been upheld by the 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation.

Speaking shortly after this ruling was handed down, Gergerlioğlu said that the verdict was "political", adding, "Strip searches, abductions, tortures... Some people got disturbed by us talking about all these."

He also made an application to the Constitutional Court. However, the final ruling of the court was read out at the Plenary Session of the Parliament on March 17, 2021 and he was stripped of his MP duty. He did not leave the Parliament in protest, starting a justice watch.

During his justice watch, he was detained at the Parliament as part of a new investigation on March 21 and released after giving his statement.

(HA/VK)