AKP judiciary can’t judge us, says BDP

DİYARBAKIR - Doğan News Agency

BDP co-chairs Demirtaş (R) and Kışanak (L) hold a press meeting in Diyarbakır. DHA photo

The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) has laughed off threats by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to support a move to strip party MPs of their immunity from prosecution, saying the “government’s judiciary” cannot judge them.

“The judiciary, which acts under the order of the prime minister, cannot judge another political party. It is not legal. No prosecutor and judge trying the BDP have legitimacy anymore. In the face of the prime minister, who said: ‘We ourselves gave the order. The judiciary is doing what is necessary,’ the judiciary must resign from duty,” BDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said during a new conference yesterday in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

“A judge or prosecutor who takes orders from the prime minister cannot say that they are conducting a fair [trial] in this country. So the Parliament, who will abolish our political immunities, should know that the judiciary belongs to the AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party], and it cannot try us. Only those who voted for and supported us can politically judge us,” he said.

Erdoğan had earlier incited BDP lawmakers to join the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Kandil Mountain in northern Iraq, the group’s main base.

“If [the BDP] wants to work within this Parliament, they must act within the framework of the Constitution and the law. Otherwise, we’ve already told the judiciary what is necessary; the judiciary is doing what is necessary. We will also do what is necessary in Parliament,” Erdoğan said Sept. 5.

Continuing his attack against the prime minister, Demirtaş said: “Your duty is not to act as the PKK’s courier, but to search for the ways to a solution.”