CHP leader criticizes Constitutional Court candidate

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has lashed out at Supreme Court head İrfan Fidan for running for a seat on the Constitutional Court.

Addressing party members in parliament on Dec. 22, Kılıçdaroğlu reacted to the judges that voted in favor of the candidacy of Fidan, who oversaw a number of controversial and high-profile cases when he was former Istanbul chief public prosecutor.

“Some 107 members [judges] voted by renting their conscience and selling their will. What a picture of embarrassment,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Fidan was only named to the Supreme Court of Appeals on Nov. 27, but he immediately stepped forward to stand in last week’s internal elections for the Constitutional Court.

The opposition criticized Fidan’s candidacy on the grounds that he ran for the Constitutional Court before he even concluded a single case at the Supreme Court of Appeals.

“I’m telling those 107 people. You are a servant and slave of a person and you vote on the instructions given by that person. Just as I called the 140 judges of FETÖ militants, you are now the militant of the palace!” he said.

The government accuses FETÖ of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

 FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Gülen, orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which killed 251 people and injured nearly 2,200.