342 new members appointed to top judicial bodies

ANKARA

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Turkey’s Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) appointed a total of 342 new members to Turkey’s Council of State and Supreme Court of Appeals, after an extraordinary meeting of its general assembly July 25.
The group of 17 members of the council gathered under the chairmanship of Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ at 9:30 a.m. on July 25, two days after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan approved a bill including amendments to Turkey’s Council of State law. 

As a result of secret ballot voting, 342 new members were appointed to the Supreme Court of Appeals and the Council of State, an official announcement released on the HSYK’s website said.

The Supreme Court of Appeals was appointed 267 new members while the Council of State now has 75 new members. 

The HSYK had recently suspended from duty 2,745 judicial and administrative judges and prosecutors, hours after a failed coup attempt sent shockwaves across the country on July 15. 

The council’s 2nd chamber ruled for the suspension of 541 members of first level administrative judiciary and 2,204 members of the first level judiciary on July 16, on suspicion of links to U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who is believed by the Turkish government to have orchestrated the coup plot. 

Meanwhile, the general assembly of the HSYK decided to end the membership of five of its 22 judges facing detention demands by the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office, while it has cut short the vacations of some judges and prosecutors.