Turkey’s main opposition calls on top court to release jailed MP Berberoğlu

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has once again called on the country’s Constitutional Court to release its jailed lawmaker Enis Berberoğlu.

The CHP previously said they had formed a commission to follow Berberoğlu’s case, for which they held their second meeting on Sept. 26.

Berberoğlu was sentenced to 25 years in jail for “leaking state secrets” in a Syria-bound intelligence trucks case on June 14.

After the meeting, commission member and CHP Istanbul lawmaker Barış Yarkadaş called on the Constitutional Court to abide by a previous ruling regarding jailed lawmakers.

Yarkadaş referred to a ruling concerning the case of CHP deputy Mustafa Balbay, for whom the top court in 2013 ruled that the long imprisonment sentence handed to him mounted to “the violation of rights.”

Saying that the Constitutional Court must issue the same ruling for Berberoğlu, Yarkadaş noted that he has been in jail “unlawfully” for over 100 days.

“Berberoğlu has been illegally and unjustly in jail for 105 days now,” Yarkadaş said on his Twitter account on Sept. 26, adding that none of the accusations directed at Berberoğlu were proven.

“The Constitutional Court must stand by its ruling on lawmakers being unsuitable for being tried under arrest,” he said.

The Berberoğlu Case Tracking Commission is coordinated by Ömer Süha Aldan, a CHP lawmaker for the Aegean province of Muğla, and consists of lawmakers Cemal Okan Yüksel, Mehmet Gökdağ and CHP High Disciplinary Board member Turan Aydoğan besides Yarkadaş.