Kürkçü Forcibly Taken to Court to Testify: ‘A Practice Specific to Fascism’

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) İzmir MP Ertuğrul Kürkçü was brought before the judge on September 5 after an order to take him forcibly to testify was issued.

Kürkçü stands trial on the grounds of a statement of opposition he had written as a member of Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) Human Rights Commission against a report on the rights violations in Şakran Prison.

The indictment against him was prepared by İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and he stands trial before the İzmir 13th Heavy Criminal Court.

In his defence before the court he was brought forcibly to testify, Kürkçü said: "The fact alone that I as a member of the parliament have been brought to court under the threat of being punished is, in terms of its consequences, a practice specific to fascism and autocracy".

Click - The Status of HDP MPs to Date

Kürkçü, making a statement to bianet regarding the issue, said:

'Three fatal factors...'

"In this proceeding, there are three fatal factors. The first one is TBMM abolishing its own sovereignty by its own doing, and throwing itself into the arms of the police force, prosecutor's offices and courts. This is actually the suicide of the the national assembly.

Criticizing that the MP's parliamentary immunities were partially being lifted regarding specific contents Kürkçü said: "The second serious situation is this: Members of the parliament who still have parliamentary immunity are being forced to go back to the past before the court. They are being told 'Yes, you have parliamentary immunity, but before you did this and that, and now the parliament has lifted your parliamentary immunity in relation to this matter".

"The third factor is the worst of all... I had included the conclusions I drew as a statement of opposition in a report. And this report was approved in the TBMM General Meeting as a part of a study undertaken by the national assembly.

"This report is on the website of TBMM. In the meanwhile, the people against whom I filed a complaint to the Minister of Justice, whom I reported to the parliament and whose names and crimes I finally could include in this report as a statement of opposition, have filed a complaint against me, accusing me of 'exposing an anti-terror authority'.

"Yet the Chief Public Prosecutor does not even take the trouble to check what is in this parliamentary report and makes a crime out of it".

"Judged for being a HDP MP, not a suspect"

Criticizing that he still had parliamentary immunity but was nevertheless taken forcibly to court to testify, Kürkçü said that:

"The reason why I am here is not that I am a defendant or a suspect, but because I am a HDP member and our fight against racism, colonialism, fascism, autocracy, sectarianism, the rulership of an individual or a family line, our fight for equality, freedom, justice, democracy and human rights as well as the sympathy the people have for this fights and the concerns it causes in the presidential palace that they are losing control". (EKN/DG)