MHP files a lawsuit against former CHP leader

ANKARA

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has filed a lawsuit against former main opposition leader and presidential candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu over his statements praising a criminal and his crimes.

An indictment admitted by a heavy panel court in Ankara demands a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence and political ban for Kılıçdaroğlu, according to reports.

Three MHP lawmakers filed the lawsuit on Kılıçdaroğlu in 2022 when he was enjoying a parliamentary immunity. The lawsuit was set in motion after Kılıçdaroğlu lost that immunity in May 2023.

The lawmakers argue that Kılıçdaroğlu’s statements about jailed former co-leader of the People’s Democratic Party Selahattin Demirtaş were in violation of the Turkish Penal Code. Demirtaş has been in prison since 2016 over his alleged role in the 2014 uprising that claimed the lives of dozens of people in southeastern Anatolia.

Kılıçdaroğlu reacted against the lawsuit on late August 28.

“All these demonstrate perfectly who is disturbed by my statements. The judiciary is under the control of [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and not mine. The judiciary is not independent; it acts in line with the instructions of the [presidential] palace,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

MHP is the closest ally of Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). Kılıçdaroğlu ran against Erdoğan in the May 2023 presidential polls and lost against him. He was later unseated from the CHP chairmanship.