Constitutional Court assigns rapporteur for the HDP

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Shortly after Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation Bekir Şahin lodged another indictment against the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and demanded the party's closure, Constitutional Court President Zühtü Arslan has assigned a rapporteur for the file.

Returned by the Constitutional Court to rectify the deficiencies, the indictment seeking the closure of the HDP has been prepared again by the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Cassation. The new indictment was submitted to the top court yesterday (June 7).

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), the Constitutional Court has appointed a rapporteur to examine the indictment lodged against the HDP. The rapporteur assigned with examining the first indictment has been reportedly assigned with the same task again.

How will the case proceed?

The Constitutional Court will make the first examination. The court board will decide whether the indictment lodged by Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation Bekir Şahin is accepted or not.

If the indictment is accepted, it will be sent to the HDP for preliminary defense. The party will be obligated to submit its preliminary defense within the time period specified by the top court. But the party can make an application to extend this period. The Court will conclude this application.

After the HDP presents its preliminary defense, Court of Cassation's Chief Public Prosecutor Bekir Şahin will be asked his opinion as to the accusations. This opinion will also be sent to the HDP. Then, at dates to be specified by the Constitutional Court, prosecutor Bekir Şahin will make a verbal statement and HDP officials will make a verbal defense.

Following this process, the rapporteur, who will collect information and documents about the case, will prepare a report on the merits. While this process is ongoing, the Chief Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Cassation and HDP can submit additional evidence or defense.

After the report is handed out to the Constitutional Court members, Court President Zühtü Arslan will set a date for the meeting and, on the specified day, the members will start examining the case as to the merits.

A two-thirds majority, or votes of the 10 of 15 Constitutional Court members, are needed to close the party because of the reasons cited in article 69 of the Constitution or impose other sanctions on the party such as partially or completely depriving it of public aid.

The top court ruling will be submitted to the Court of Cassation Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, which filed the case, and to the related political party, namely the HDP, and will be published in the Official Gazette. Those who have been imposed a political ban will not be able to be founders, members, executives or supervisors of any other political party for five years.

What happened?

The Court of Cassation launched an inquiry against the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) on March 2, 2021 and Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation Bekir Şahin applied to the Constitutional Court on March 17, 2021, demanding the closure of the HDP.

In its session on March 31, the General Assembly of the Constitutional Court conducted the first examination on the indictment lodged by Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation Bekir Şahin.

Finding procedural deficiencies in the indictment, the General Assembly ruled that the application should be returned to the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Cassation to rectify the deficiencies.

The Constitutional Court rapporteur assigned with examining the HDP indictment requested on March 30 that the indictment be returned to the Court of Cassation due to procedural deficiencies. (AS/SD)