AKP postpones parliamentary panel for corruption claims until after presidential elections

Bülent Sarıoğlu ANKARA

The ruling party has once again postponed the parliamentary investigation panel to investigate corruption claims on four former ministers, citing procedural paperwork as the reason, thus de facto postponing the start of the process until after the post-presidential election period.

Parliament has decided to establish an investigation commission to investigate former ministers Zafer Çağlayan, Egemen Bağış, Muammer Güler and Erdoğan Bayraktar, but the commission has repeatedly been stalled for four months by delays from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The commission chair from the AKP, Hakkı Köylü, did not open the summary of proceedings into commission members and returned dossiers to the Istanbul chief prosecutor claiming that a document designating a “list of content” was missing.

“We asked the document to be sent with a list of content. We’ll start whenever that comes,” Köylü said.

This is the second time that the summary of proceedings has been returned to the chief prosecutor.

As Parliament goes into summer recess in July, lawmakers will only be able to examine the new summary of proceedings in September or October.

Akif Hamzaçebi from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) claimed that the government was "afraid of the people learning about its crimes" through evidence before the presidential elections.