Top court 2nd time rules violation of rights for former CHP MP

ANKARA

Turkey’s Constitutional Court once again ruled on Jan. 21 that the rights of former main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Enis Berberoğlu were breached, noting that the verdict given earlier has not been implemented yet.

CHP Group Deputy Chair Engin Altay has called on high and local courts to meet the demand of the Constitutional Court.

“No more refute the judgment. Remove the shadow of tutelage over the judgment,” Altay told reporters on Jan. 21.

The Constitutional Court ruled on Sept. 17, 2020, that Berberoğlu’s rights were breached. The court said Berberoğlu’s right to be elected and engage in political activities and right to personal liberty and security were violated during his trial.

On Oct. 23, Istanbul’s 15th High Criminal Court denied Berberoglu’s appeal for a retrial, which was also earlier rejected by Istanbul’s 14th High Criminal Court.

Lawyers of Berberoğlu applied to the Constitutional Court on Oct. 26, 2020, for his retrial after two first instance courts rejected his appeals.

Berberoğlu was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2017 on espionage charges for providing daily Cumhuriyet with a video purporting to show Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucking weapons into Syria.

He was reelected as the party’s deputy in the June 24, 2018 elections. He was released from prison in late 2018 after 15-month imprisonment.

On June 4, the Turkish Parliament stripped Berberoğlu of his deputyship, along with two other lawmakers from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). He had been arrested again to serve the remaining part of his sentence but was transferred from an open prison to house arrest as part of measures against the pandemic.