CHP Appeals to Constitutional Court Against Law on Criminal Enforcement

* Photo: Muhammed Selim Korkuata - Ankara / AA

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) submitted an application to the Constitutional Court yesterday (June 11) and requested that 14 articles of the Law on Criminal Enforcement be repealed.

The Law Foreseeing Amendments to the Law no. 7242 on the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures and Some Laws passed the General Assembly of the Parliament and entered into force after being published on the Official Gazette on April 15, 2020.

While the law has enabled the release of around 90 thousand convicts amid Covid-19 pandemic, political prisoners, criminals of thought and arrested journalists have not been included in the law foreseeing reduced prison sentences and early release despite the opposition's efforts.

Accordingly, addressing the reporters after appealing to the Court, CHP Parliamentary Group Deputy Chair Engin Altay has said, "We wanted writers and those who expressed their opinions to benefit from reduced sentences benefited by muggers, usurpers and bandits."

In its appeal, the CHP has requested the repealment of 14 articles of the Law on Criminal Enforcement, including the Articles 15, 16, 18, 23, 25, 31, 32, 37, 46 and 48 as well as the 6th Provisional Article.

Altay has also reminded the reporters that the application that they made to the Constitutional Court on April 14 for the annulment of the law in terms of form considerations has not yet been concluded.

'It is against the Article 92 of the Bylaw'

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), in his address to the reporters, Altay has noted that the Law on Criminal Enforcement is "in open violation of the Article 92 of the Parliamentary Bylaw."

According to Altay, considering that provisions to be passed on supervised release and reduced sentences are characterized as amnesty by the Article 92 of the Bylaw, both the related articles and the law as a whole should have been passed by a three fifth majority by the Parliament.

'Over a thousand complaints against 189 MPs'

"At the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM), there have been over a thousand criminal complaints against 189 MPs in the last two years," Altay has protested and underlined that "it needs to be considered in terms of the current situation of the judiciary" in Turkey.

Referring to President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Altay has also said:

"As Erdoğan regards every person against himself as a terrorist and labels them as such, the prosecutors dominated by him send summaries of proceedings to the Parliament about everyone who criticizes Erdoğan, who does not obey, who writes their opinions, chants slogans and posts tweets over their links with terrorist organizations."

'Let those who expressed their opinion benefit'

Sharing further details about their application to the Court, Altay has indicated that they "wanted the conditions of supervised release and reduced sentences benefited by everyone to be valid for the ones who have been convicted based on the Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMK)."

The party has also requested that those convicted as per the Articles 220/6, 220/7, 220/8 and 314/3 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). "In other words, we wanted the ones who expressed their opinions on Twitter, Facebook and visual and print media to benefit from this," Altay has underlined:

"We wanted writers and those who expressed their opinions to benefit from reduced sentences benefited by muggers, usurpers and bandits."

'Supervised release must be implemented by 1/2'

Altay has also said that "their application contains no requests as to the founders, leaders or members of terrorist organizations."

"That being said, those convicted of aggravated injury resulting in willful killing, torture, sexual assault, crimes against sexual inviolability, crimes against privacy, production and trade of drugs, crimes against state secrets and crimes of espionage should not benefit from supervised release or release on probation," Engin Altay has said and added:

"We have made our application so that the ratio of supervised release be reduced from two thirds to one half."

'Legal system needs to be righteous'

Concluding his remarks, Altay has briefly stated the following:

"We think that the decision as to whether inmates will be transferred to open prisons needs to be enacted by law, not by a regulation. Moreover, we do not approve that judicial control measures are lifted by courts of first instance while the process of appeals is still underway.

"We also do not find it right that the attitude of arrestees and convicts at court is considered to be their attitude in prison.

"We have also appealed against the severe restrictions imposed on arrestees' and convicts' access and use of libraries.

"A legal system needs to be righteous. A legal system where the one who thinks is behind bars while the one who steals is free outside is not a righteous system." (EKN/SD)