The charges of main opposition leader unreasonable: Justice Ministry

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The main opposition CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu receives a traditional scarf at Yörük festival in Antalya.

The Justice Ministry has swiftly refuted the main opposition leader’s claim that the judiciary was being used as a tool by the prime minister for intimidating people, while underlining that such a claim had nothing to do with either reason or intelligence.

The remarks by Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu which prompted the Justice Ministry to release a written response yesterday, came in a speech delivered at a meeting of the Party Assembly of the CHP on May 4.

“The judiciary has come to such a position that prosecutors are taking action even within 24 hours upon [Prime Minister] Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s instruction. More than 4,000 judges and prosecutors have been employed. During the AK Party rule, 4,000 militants have been employed through dubious exams. Militant judges have been assigned to the Supreme Court of Appeals and the Council of State,” Kılıçdaroğlu was quoted as saying.

In its statement, the Justice Ministry first of all noted that Kılıçdaroğlu’s statements “did not reflect the truth,” and thoroughly explained the legal procedure concerning employment of the judges and prosecutors as well as amendments carried out by the government in order to make the procedure available for a more objective assessment.

“While a lot of legal arrangements which decreases the impact of the interview text have been made on an issue which is imperiously within the duty of the Justice Ministry; it is obvious that declaring exams - the principles and procedures of which are arranged by law – as ‘dubious’ and denouncing precious members of the judiciary organization - who are appointed as judge and prosecutor by being accepted to the profession by the HSYK [the Supreme Board of Judges and Public Prosecutors]– as ‘militant’ is an extremely unfair and irresponsible act and that it does not comply with reason and intelligence,” the ministry said. Currently, 13,272 judges and prosecutors have been employed at the criminal and administrative judicial organization and Turkey is still far behind European countries in regards to the approximate number of judges and prosecutors for every 100,000 people as documented in reports by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice, it also said. 
The ministry said it aimed to increase the number of its staff by the end of 2014.