CHP takes 3rd package to top court

KARA

Deputy chair of the parliamentary group of the CHP Emine Ülker Tarhan. AA Photo

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) took a package of judicial reform – known as the third judicial reform package – to the Constitutional Court yesterday, asking for the annulment of some articles of the package.

The CHP asked the Constitutional Court for a stay of execution and eventual annulment of certain articles within the reform package, which was drafted by the government to ostensibly lighten the heavy burden of the judicial system.

Inducement

Calling the package as “an inducement,” Emine Ülker Tarhan, deputy chair of the parliamentary group of the CHP, argued in a written statement that the establishment of courts specially designed to prosecute certain people was the most striking characteristic of the package.

“This [legal] arrangement is contradictory to the rule of law; the principle of natural justice; [the principle of] equality; and to the rules of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the judiciary and trials – particularly the ones about the right to defense,” Tarhan said.

“While the abolishment of the specially authorized courts – which aim at bringing the society into line – had been expected; their soul twins have been created and a two-tiered system with special authorities has been formed,” Ülker Tarhan said.