CHP’s Berberoğlu applies to upper court for retrial

ANKARA

Former Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Enis Berberoğlu has applied to an upper court, demanding the judicial body annul a ruling from the Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court, which recently defied a Constitutional Court decision ordering a retrial for the MP.

Berberoğlu’s lawyers sent a petition to the Istanbul 15th High Criminal Court on Oct. 15, requesting the revocation of the Oct. 13 decision of the Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court, as well as a retrial and stand-by decision for the MP.

The Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court had ruled that there were no grounds for a retrial for Berberoğlu, even though the Constitutional Court declared on Sept. 17 that the judiciary had violated the rights of the former lawmaker.

In its decision last month, the Constitutional Court ordered a retrial after unanimously ruling that Berberoğlu’s right to stand for election and engage in political activities, along with his right to freedom and security, had been breached because he was stripped of his parliamentary status with a five-year, 10-month sentence before the conclusion of his application.

Berberoğlu was initially sentenced to 25 years in prison on espionage charges for providing daily Cumhuriyet with a video purporting to show Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucking weapons into Syria.

Berberoğlu was reelected as a deputy in the June 24, 2018, elections. He was released from prison in late 2018 after 15 months in prison.

On June 4, Turkey’s Parliament stripped Berberoğlu of his parliamentary status.