Engin Alan’s imprisonment is unfair, says Parliament Speaker

ANKARA

Parliamentary speaker Cemil Çiçek. DHA Photo

Engin Alan, who was elected to Parliament in 2011 from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), should be released from prison, parliamentary speaker Cemil Çiçek said on April 30.

Alan is being tried under arrest over allegations of links to the Ergenekon coup plot.     

Çiçek said Sabahat Tuncel, one of the two charged MPs, is currently free to carry out her legislative responsibilities, but Alan remains in prison. Çiçek stressed, “The case of prisoner Alan is unfair, and this injustice should be rectified,” responding to questions from journalists at Parliament in Ankara.

Turkey’s Court of Appeals upheld an eight year, nine month prison sentence against Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Istanbul Deputy Tuncel for “being a member of the terrorist organization PKK.”

“If Parliament cannot find any constitutional solution [in Alan’s case], the sentence should be postponed until the end of his term in Parliament,” Çiçek said.    

Turkey’s Parliament is currently in the 24th legislative session, which will continue until the general elections in June 2015.