HDP says 'nonsensical' closure indictment not prepared by prosecutors but by ruling parties

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Mithat Sancar has said that they expect the Constitutional Court to reject the closure case against the party after the first examination scheduled for today (March 31).

"I expect the conscientious judges in the Constitutional Court to reject this baseless ... disgraceful document," he said during an event held by the party in the southeastern Mardin province.

The Constitutional Court rapporteur yesterday requested that the indictment be returned so that the procedural deficiencies can be rectified. The General Assembly of the court will decide whether to accept or reject the indictment.

CLICK - How will the closure case against HDP proceed? Everything to know 

The chief public prosecutor of the Court of Cassation on March 17 submitted the indictment seeking the closure of the party because of its alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The indictment is mostly based on ongoing investigations against the party, hence is not sufficient to get the party closed, Prof. Osman Can, a former Constitutional Court rapporteur, told bianet earlier. 

"The initial determinations of the rapporteur, albeit coyly, reveals how nonsensical and unlawful the preparation of this indictment," said Sancar. "We expect the Constitutional Court decision to be at a further point."

"We are aware where the closure case indictment was prepared. This indictment was not prepared in the building of the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Cassation ... it was prepared in the headquarters of the small partner of the government and took its final shape in the palace," Sancar also remarked.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), an ally of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), had been calling on the top courts to move to close down the HDP over the past few months.

"They know that closure is of no use"

Ahmet Türk, a veteran Kurdish politician who was dismissed by the government as the mayor of Mardin in August 2019, also spoke at the event.

"Seven or eight of our parties were closed by the Kurdish people, those who believe in democracy, laborers, socialists, democrats took struggling together for the future as the basis," he said, adding that the HDP would get more than 13 percent of the votes if there was an election today.

The HDP got the third-highest number of votes in the 2018 general election with an 11.7 percent share.

"Even if they know that closures are of no use, they do such politics today," Türk said. (AÖ/VK)