EU parliamentarians to visit arrested MPs

Istanbul – Doğan News Agency

İzmir deputy from the Republican People’s Party and columnist Mustafa Balbay has been in prison since March 2009 and was kept alone for more than one year.

Two parliamentarians from the European Council are expected to visit the arrested officials and deputies in Silivri prison on June 18.

Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s Turkey rapporteur and French MP Josette Durrieu, together with monitoring commission secretary Sylvie Affholder, will pay a visit to three deputies and former Chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ, who are among the jailed suspects in the ongoing Ergenekon coup plot probe, daily Akşam reported.

The deputies are also expected to visit a deputy from the Nationalist Movement Party, Engin Alan, as well as two deputies from the Republican People’s Party, Mehmet Haberal and Mustafa Balbay, who are also being tried for having links to Ergenekon.

Ergenekon is an alleged ultra nationalist shadowy gang accused of planning to topple the government by staging a coup, initially by spreading chaos and mayhem.

The three deputies were all elected to Turkish Parliament in 2011, after they had already been arrested.
The European committee needed special permission from the Silivri Public Prosecutor’s office in order to realize the visit.

The June 18 visit will be reported to the Council of Europe, according to the reports.