CHP deputy slams PM for release remarks

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The prime minister’s recent remarks objecting to the release of arrested MPs were intended as a message to the courts not to use their judicial discretion in favor of their releases, according to the senior opposition official.

Deputy chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Emine Ülker Tarhan recalled Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks on Wednesday that

the third judicial package is a reform aimed at generally addressing the problems of the judiciary and therefore not aimed at affecting specific cases.

‘Wait for court decision’

“The prime minister has implicitly ordered the courts not to release the arrested deputies. Let’s see whether the courts will obey to this order,” she said.

She also suggested that Erdoğan played a role in the recent court decision to stop the execution of the punishment of two convicts who killed seven student members of the now-defunct Labor Party of Turkey (TİP) on Oct. 9, 1978.