Turkish court to begin deliberating closure case against AKP on Mon

The Turkish Constitutional Court can find the ruling AKP not guilty and dismiss the case, or convict it and either fine or ban the party and some of its leaders, in which case the government will fall and early parliamentary elections be called, possibly in November.

The court can also rule to deprive the ruling AKP of financial assistance from the Treasury instead of its dissolution.

Under the constitution, a qualified majority of votes is required to disband a political party which means at least seven out of 11 members of the court need to vote in favor of the closure of the party. Â

 

The country's top prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, demanded in March a five-year ban on 71 party officials, including Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, as well as the closure of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) that he accused of being engaged in a systematic effort to impose Islam on Turkey.

 

Yalcinkaya made his verbal statement to the constitutional court on July 1, while the AKP made its verbal defense on July 3.

 

Earlier, court rapporteur, Osman Can advocated in his non-binding report that the court should reject the closure case.