Top judicial body probes judiciary members affiliated with pro-Gülen ‘terror organization’

Justice Ministry Undersecretary Kenan İpek, who is also the president of the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), said an investigation file was opened by the 3rd Chamber of the HSYK upon a tip-off claiming the existence ofa “parallel judicial power,” adding that inspectors would investigate details of other peculiarities that might erupt.

In a written statement released on April 14, İpek said the tip-off was given by the Office in Charge of Investigating Crimes Committed against the Constitutional Order, which works under the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, in two separate correspondences dated March 24, 2015 and April 7, 2015, state-run Anadolu Agency reported. 

In those correspondences, the Office in Charge of Investigating Crimes Committed against the Constitutional Order claimed that a number of judges and prosecutors had “formed a parallel judicial power within the judiciary, as an extension of the ‘Parallel State Structuring Terror Organization.’

The power has an organization and hierarchical structure within the judicial power of the state of the Republic of Turkey; is acting as an alternative to the state’s judiciary in an organized way; turns people who are not from the group, or who it can’t use, or who think differently; into targets of operations through judicial decisions. Its members execute decisions made by its high-level executives according to intelligence gathered through the Police Department and the judiciary, and cause injustice to a lot of people through the judiciary without regard for whether they are perpetrators of crimes or innocent. Its members open exaggerated, deliberate and partial cases without evidence, and manipulate perceptions aimed at society.”

The “Pro-Fetullah Terror Organization” was first cited in a draft indictment penned by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and finalized last week. 

The indictment stated that it had found “concrete evidence” that sympathizers of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen were trying to form a “cemaat state” parallel to the state of the Republic of Turkey. It also charged seven people with leaking information and documents to criminal organizations.

The chief public prosecutor claims that the seven arrested suspects were members of a “Pro-Fetullah Terror Organization” led by arrested civil servant Kadir İnan and composed of four policemen and two civilians, read the indictment. 

Since the corruption probes targeting senior government figures went public in December 2013, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has initiated a series of massive reshuffles both in the judiciary and the Police Department - two bodies thought to be the bases of the so-called “parallel structure” – to oust members of the Gülen movement.

The judiciary is seen as one of the key battlegrounds between the government and what it describes as the “parallel state.”