‘Constitutional Court confirms that indictment against HDP is political’

* Photo: Mezopotamya Agency (MA)

Click to read the article in Turkish

Turkey's Constitutional Court returned the indictment of the closure case against the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to the Court of Cassation yesterday (April 15), with the justified ruling attached.

In the ruling published in the official website of the Constitutional Court, there were evaluations and comments as to the deficiencies in the indictment prepared by the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Cassation and as to the merits of the indictment.

Referring to the Article 170 of the Code of Criminal Procedures (CMK) on party closures, the top court said that the indictment "failed to prove the relation between the acts cited in the indictment without any justification other than the files of investigation and prosecution and that the party has become the center of these acts; therefore, it is against the CMK 170."

'It is a disgrace for the prosecutor'

Speaking to bianet, HDP Vice Co-Chair Responsible for Legal Affairs Ümit Dede says, "The Constitutional Court has confirmed that this indictment which is groundless and full of major deficiencies is not a legal document, but a political one. This is what the justified ruling means."

"The Constitutional Court has indicated that almost none of the points that need to be in the indictment as stipulated by the CMK is included in this indictment," Ümit Dede has said, briefly adding:

"We partly knew about the truths to the extent that they were reported in the press. The Constitutional Court explains it in a very detailed manner, citing people as examples one by one.

"It explains it not as if it was explaining it to the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Cassation, but does it in a language that can be understood by an ordinary citizen who does not know anything about the law. It is a disgrace for the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

'HDP cannot be closed with this indictment'

"The names of people were miswritten, people who have nothing to do with the party were included in the indictment, the acts of some people before they became party members were added. Moreover, the Prosecutor talked about thousands of investigation and prosecution files. But he did not find it necessary to present the evidence of this to the court.

"A vast majority of the investigations and prosecutions end in rulings of rights violations given by the Constitutional Court anyway. A lawsuit has been filed against our party co-chairs, party executive committees and members because they criticized the government.

"Almost all of them are related to freedom of expression and there are several European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgements of right violation about these files. In other words, it is not possible to close the HDP with an indictment limited to investigations and prosecutions."

'Constitutional Court should reject the case'

According to Ümit Dede, the Prosecutor now needs to write the indictment from scratch. Dede briefly adds the following:

"The court has said that the number of prosecutions against people cannot be a measure of being the 'center' and requested that a relation be drawn between the incidents and HDP's connection with them.

"It does not seem very likely that these deficiencies can be rectified. The prosecutor will need to write an indictment from scratch.

"But after this ruling, the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation should not write another indictment, but resign from office. His professional formation is not suited to the position he holds.

"Moreover, following this justified ruling, an indictment cannot be issued against the HDP. If an indictment is issued with the same method and mentality, the Constitutional Court must dismiss the case." (RT/SD)