Top court should free jailed CHP MP based on previous ruling on Cumhuriyet journalists: Kılıçdaroğlu

Rifat Başaran – ANKARA

REUTERS photo

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said on July 23 that Turkey’s Constitutional Court should release the jailed CHP Istanbul lawmaker Enis Berberoğlu based on a February ruling that paved the way for the release of the two Cumhuriyet journalists, Can Dündar and Erdem Gül.

Dündar and Gül left prison after the Constitutional Court ruled on Feb. 25 that their rights had been violated in an ongoing case in which they are accused of espionage over two stories published in Cumhuriyet about the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) trucks allegedly filled with weapons and bound for Syria.

“The Constitutional Court should remember its decision on Erdem Gül and Can Dündar and should also give a decision in line with the law here [on the Enis Berberoğlu case]. That precedent is the only justification that stands as an obstacle to the continuation of Mr. Enis’s arrest and that will provide his release. For us to say ‘there is law’ in Turkey, the Constitutional Court should defend its own rulings and give a ruling in line with the law. With such a decision, Turkey would heave a sigh of relief,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The CHP chairman made the comments during a one-hour long visit to Enis Berberoğlu’s wife Oya Berberoğlu in their Istanbul house to where he went to offer his condolences after she lost her father, Murat Aydın. Kılıçdaroğlu offered Oya Berberoğlu white roses and lilies.

Enis Berberoğlu was sentenced to 25 years in prison on June 14 for allegedly “leaking state secrets” in the MİT trucks case, in which he is accused of providing Cumhuriyet with a video purporting to show the intelligence agency trucking weapons to Syria.