Turkey's AKP submits its defense to top court
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Turkey's ruling AKP submitted its preliminary defense in the closure case to the Constitutional Court. AKP submitted one copy of the defense to the chief prosecutor's office.
AKP's Deputy Chairman Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat and two other AKP officials submitted the preliminary defence of their party in the prohibition case compiled in three files to the Constitutional court.
Turkey's top prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, filed a lawsuit against AKP, claiming the party became the "focal point of anti-secular activities," and demanded 71 officials, including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, to be banned from politics for five years.
AKP submitted one copy of the defense to the office of chief prosecutor and another one to the Constituional Court, the deputy parliamentary leader of the party said. "Our defense includes the responses those (claims) in the indictment," Sadullah Ergin told reporters in Ankara.
LEGAL PROCEDURE
"We submitted the files to the Court. If they want they reveal them. We are now in the middle of a judiciary process. Only if our executive bodies decide to do so then we share it with you and publish it on our website," he replied when asked whether the defense text will be revealed or not.
After the Chief Prosecutor states his views on the merits of the case, AKP will make a verbal defense within a month. This will be followed by verbal statements of the Chief Prosecutor.
Then the rapporteur assigned by the Constitutional Court will prepare his/her report on the merits of the case. In this phase, the Chief Prosecutor can submit further evidence and AKP can submit additional defense material to the rapporteur. Then rapporteur's report will be distributed to court members.
The Constitutional Court Chief Judge Hasim Kilic will set a date and the court will start seeing the case on its merits. If AKP demands extra time for its defense, the court will also assess these demands.
According to the Constitution, at least 7 of the 11 members of the court have to vote for closure in order for the court to shut down a political party. In line with Article 69 of the Constitution, the court may instead decide to reduce or cut the financial aid given to this political party from the Treasury.