Nationalist leader criticizes decision for former CHP deputy’s retrial

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli criticized a court decision for the retrial of the former Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Enis Berberoğlu while calling for the restructuring of the Constitutional Court.

“The Constitutional Court should be restructured, and the current situation of the high court should be addressed during the new constitutional process,” Bahçeli said on Feb. 10 in a written statement.

The summary of proceeding for the CHP deputy should be brought to the Parliament Joint Committee “urgently and put on the agenda before leaving the term to the end, and then it should be lowered to the General Assembly and voting should be made to lift his immunity, ” he said.

The MHP will vote to strip Berberoğlu, Bahçeli said.

“In this voting, the MHP will use its vote to lift the immunity in order to open a retrial. No one will be able to cover up their criminal acts on the grounds of violations of democracy and rights,” Bahçeli stated.

The Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court sent a summary of proceedings to the Justice Ministry on Feb. 9 that paves the way for a retrial of Berberoğlu. The local court announced that it would retry Berberoğlu after it was advised by the chief prosecutor to implement a recent verdict from the Constitutional Court, which stated that the former lawmaker’s rights were violated when he was convicted and stripped of his immunity by the court.

According to Article 83/2 of the Turkish Constitution, parliament must decide to abolish the parliamentary immunity of deputies before legal proceedings can continue against lawmakers, the court said in the summary of the proceeding.

The summary of the proceeding will be submitted to the parliament by the ministry.

The Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court ruled on Feb. 8 to end the conviction of Berberoğlu, who was sentenced on terror-related charges, and to retry him after the chief prosecutor’s office recommended it to abide by the Constitutional Court’s rulings from 2020 and early 2021.

Berberoğlu, who was elected into the Turkish Parliament in June 2018 elections from the ranks of the CHP, lost his seat after he was convicted.