The Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) announced that they will march from the Constitutional Court to the Presidency of the Court of Cassation today at 15:00.
The TBB has called on lawyers to join the march with the Constitution in their hands and robes on their backs:
"We stand up for the rule of law in the face of the decision of the 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, which clearly violates the constitutional order; we invite all our colleagues to the press statement and to join us in the march for the Supremacy of Law from Ahlatlıbel Atatürk Park to the Court of Cassation."
Ankara Bar Association President Mustafa Köroğlu also stated, "Together with bar association presidents and lawyer colleagues from all over Turkey, we will march, express our reaction, demonstrate, and fight to prevent the recurrence of this dark stain on the legal history of the judiciary."
Özel announces support
Özgür Özel, the President of the Republican People's Party (CHP) stated that they will support the march, quoting the announcement from the TBB on account X:
"We will participate in and support the 'Supremacy of Law' March organized by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations, along with our parliamentarians. I invite all residents of Ankara who want to show their reaction to the attempt against the constitutional order to support the march."
TBB visits the Court of Cassation
The President of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB), Erinç Sağkan, and the Board of Directors, visited yesterday the President of the Court of Cassation, Mehmet Akarca, the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation, Bekir Şahin, the General Secretary of the Court of Cassation, Fevzi Yıldırım, and the Deputy President of the Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK), Mehmet Akif Ekinci, to apply for the necessary actions against the President and members of the 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation and the Istanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court panel, who did not implement the Constitutional Court's decision.
After the meeting, President Sağkan of the TBB, along with the Board of Directors, made a press statement:
"The competent authority to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court is the first-instance court, which is the Istanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court. The Constitutional Court has explicitly decided on a retrial, issuing a stay of execution after the retrial, and the release of Can Atalay, stopping the execution of the sentence.
The authority capable of implementing these measures is not the Court of Cassation. This is because the 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation has already made a substantive decision on the case and has withdrawn from the file. The 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation has endorsed a decision that is contrary to the Constitution, openly violating the constitutional order in a matter where it has no jurisdiction.
The direct referral of the file to the Court of Cassation by the Istanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court without examining the situation in the file and without fulfilling the requirements of the Constitutional Court's decision emerges as the biggest mistake. Therefore, we have submitted our application for a disciplinary investigation against the President and members of the Istanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court.
Later, we visited our President of the Court of Cassation, our Chief Public Prosecutor, and our General Secretary. Our President of the Court of Cassation and the Deputy President of the HSK expressed their discomfort with the chaos currently prevailing. They also emphasized that the individual application institution is indeed a significant gain for our citizens.
The knot created by the judiciary should be untangled by the relevant institutions of the judiciary, not by another. As a defense body, we will continue to do our part to get out of this severe time period, where citizens feel completely detached from legal security due to the dire situation within the judiciary, as soon as possible."
What happened?
Imprisoned for one and a half year due to the Gezi Park trial, lawyer Can Atalay was elected an MP in the May electionsAtalay’s applications for his release to perform his MP duties were rejected by courtsIn late September, the Court of Cassation, the top appeals court, upheld the Gezi verdict, ensuring his continued imprisonmentIn response, Atalay filed an individual application with the Constitutional Court, which ruled on October 25 that his election rights were violatedInstead of directly implementing the Constitutional Court verdict, the relevant local court referred it to the Court of CassatioThe Court of Cassation asserted that the Constitutional Court’s decision violated the Constitution and decided to file criminal complaints against its judges.
While the reactions to the 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation not complying with the Constitutional Court's continued, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel had a meeting with Numan Kurtulmuş, the Speaker of the Parliament on the matter. Özel announced that the Speaker was going to convene the Parliamentary Consultation Board in an extraordinary meeting.
Later on during the day (November 9) Özel announced that such a meeting, expected to be called by Kurtulmuş, would not take place and added that they are "initiating the action of not leaving the Parliament to keep the judicial crisis and coup attempt on the agenda.
(AS/PE)
