MHP leader criticizes Constitutional Court’s ruling on jailed HDP politician Demirtaş

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on June 23 criticized a ruling by the Constitutional Court that the lengthy jailing of former Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş violated his rights.

“The decision that the rights of terrorist Demirtaş were violated, and the judgment that the Turkish state should pay him 50,000 Turkish Liras in compensation causes pangs of conscience. Justice is not justifying crime, not justifying the criminal, but doing exactly what rights and law foresee,” Bahçeli tweeted.

Recalling a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, Bahçeli emphasized that putschists were sentenced by Turkish courts “objectively.”

The MHP leader called for the retrial of former daily Zaman columnist Mümtaz’er Türköne.

“In a place where Osman Kavala, the Altan brothers, Nazlı Ilıcak and many other troubles are tried to be shown innocently, the trial of Mümtaz’er Türköne should be reexamined rigorously,” he stated, referring to journalists Mehmet Altan, Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak and philanthropist businessman Osman Kavala.

Bahçeli reminded that June 23 was the 41st death anniversary of the nationalist Mustafa Türköne, a brother of  Mümtaz’er Türköne.

The court sentenced Mümtaz’er Türköne to 10 years and six months in jail for being a member of FETÖ.

“It is the Turkish justice that will determine whether Mümtaz’er Türköne, who is the brother of our idealist martyr and who has worked on our case in the past, is really guilty,” he added.