Main opposition leader Kılıçdaroğlu criticizes Ergenekon prosecutors

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

We will settle accounts sooner or later with judges and prosecutors who destroyed the notion of justice, I promise our nation,’ Kılıçdaroğlu says. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu harshly criticized the prosecutors and judges of the Ergenekon case, vowing that they will settle accounts with those who destroyed the notion of justice in the country.

“I apologize to respectable and fair judges and prosecutors for calling those judges and prosecutors [of the Ergenekon case] judges and prosecutors. We will settle accounts sooner or later with judges and prosecutors who destroyed the notion of justice, I promise our nation,” Kılıçdaroğlu said yesterday in his address to his party’s parliamentary group meeting.

The CHP leader was commenting on the prosecutor’s demand for the aggravated life imprisonment of 67 suspects in the Ergenekon coup plot case, including former chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ and CHP deputies Mustafa Balbay and Mehmet Haberal.

‘Politically motivated’

“What kind of justice is this?” he asked, comparing today’s courts with those of the post-1980 coups. “Those courts did not dispense justice; they only serve political authority. They are sticks of the government. So we don’t expect justice from Silivri courts [where the Ergenekon trials are being held],” Kılıçdaroğlu said. Judges in the Ergenekon trials are politically motivated, according to Kılıçdaroğlu.

“There are some judges who receive instructions from the government,” he said, describing the Ergenekon trials as a black stain on Turkish democracy.

“Ergenekon is such a case that people who had not ever met or gotten in touch [their entire lives] were counted as members of the same [illegal] organization. Many of them would not know each other if they met on the street,” he said.

CHP Ankara Deputy Sinan Aygün, another suspect in the case facing aggravated life imprisonment, also commented on the prosecutor’s opinion, noting that they faced two charges of aggravated life imprisonment in addition to 54 years in prison, when the indictment was submitted to the court.