Haberal appears in court for first time

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

CHP lawmaker Mehmet Haberal has been under arrest pending trial since 2009.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Mehmet Haberal, who is under arrest pending trial in the ongoing Ergenekon probe, attended the court hearing yesterday for the first time in three years.

Haberal was brought to the court at the demand of the chief judge. Another arrested CHP deputy, journalist Mustafa Balbay, was also at the courtroom.

Haberal was arrested on April 17, 2009 and was hospitalized right after his arrest due to his cardiac disease. In April 2010 he had plead via video-conference, then he was discharged from the hospital and transferred to the prison after a report given by the hospital. Haberal has never been to the courtroom during his three-year long arrest.

Meanwhile Rolf Mützenich, foreign policy spokesman for the Social Democrat Party of Germany (SPD) paid a visit to Haberal and Balbay yesterday in prison.

“I took it as my duty to visit elected deputies,” said Mützenich, who was accompanied by CHP deputies Atilla Kart and Faruk Loğoğlu. “It saddened me that this visit occurred in the jail. This incident does not represent democratic state.”