MHP leader calls for Netanyahu's trial at The Hague

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be tried at the International Court of Justice in The Hague amid escalating tensions in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

"The cry of the oppressed has reverberated worldwide since Oct. 7," Bahçeli said during his party's group meeting on Nov. 14, denouncing what he perceived as "unbridled Israeli attacks."

"Palestinians are wanted to be driven out of their homes," Bahçeli stated, sharply criticizing Israel's recent hospital attacks.

The MHP leader also dismissed the U.S. administration's statements regarding humanitarian pause and humanitarian corridor as "empty words."

Bahçeli applauded the pro-Palestine demonstrations held globally but deemed the outcomes of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Riyadh over the weekend as insufficient.

"In my opinion, there is no one who has taken a more honest and solid stance than our president [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan], whose proposals and suggestions in Riyadh are respected," Bahçeli stated.

Expressing concern for the rights of Gaza's children, he questioned the motivations behind what he perceived as "laziness and fear" in the face of the ongoing conflict.

"Even if everyone remains silent, we will not remain silent... Israel should be sentenced to compensation... Netanyahu and his administration should be tried at the Hague [International] Court of Justice for war crimes," he declared.

The MHP leader also weighed in on the recent discord between the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court, involving the imprisonment of Can Atalay, elected to parliament from the Workers' Party of Türkiye (TİP) ranks in the May polls.

While the top court ruled Atalay's incarceration as a violation, the decision was not complied with by the Supreme Court, leading to an unprecedented legal battle between the two courts.

Bahçeli blasted the Constitutional Court as the "gall and pain" of the legal order.

"There is no hierarchical relationship between the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court... The judiciary is not under the tutelage of the Constitutional Court," he remarked. "Wherever there is a criminal, a betrayer or anyone who disrupts our brotherhood, they are rewarded with a violation of rights decision by the Constitutional Court."

Atalay was sentenced to 18 years in prison last year over alleged links to the 2013 Gezi Park protests.