CHP head slams judicial regulation as ‘imperative to inform thiefs about probes’

ANKARA

In a press statement on Dec. 27, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu denounced an intervention from the government after the removal on Dec. 26 of the head prosecutor in charge of a new corruption investigation from his case. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

Turkish main opposition’s head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has bashed the government over a new regulation on judicial police obliging those who carry out probes to inform the superiors, describing it as “an imperative to inform the thiefs about the investigations.”

“We have entered a process in which the prosecutors who are investigating frauds are disabled and the thieves are freed. Then they change the regulations and the ministers who are embroiled in corruption,” Kılıçdaroğlu said during a press statement on Dec. 27. 

“So if you have to carry out an investigation, perform a search, you have to inform the thief first. Even the brian of the judiciary, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) says that this is an unconstitutional practice,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. 

He also denounced an intervention from the government after the removal on Dec. 26 of the head prosecutor in charge of a new corruption investigation from his case. 

“The government is clearly pressuring the legislative and judicial organs. The investigation files is taken from the hands of a head prosecutor. Then the chief prosecutors appears in the TV saying that this was not his task. The investigation is ongoing for two years, it’s now that it occurs to you?” Kılıçdaroğlu said. 

“We saw the truths. The justice minister held meetings and then the Istanbul chief public prosecutor took the corruption case from the hands of the judge carrying out the investigation. It’s the first time that a government in Turkey is shaken by corruption,” he said. 

Call on AKP deputies to intervene

Kılıçdaroğlu called on deputies from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) “who values rule of law, who wants to qualify his votes, and who respects rightful share.”

“This government should disturb not only us, but you too. You should say “stop” too. We all have responsibility for history,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The CHP leader said there are considerable amounts of members in the AKP who are “decent.”
“They cannot face to the people. They walk with their heads bent. They should call their government, which caused this, to account,” said Kılıçdaroğlu. 

The main opposition leader asked the AKP deputies to remember they came to power in a bid to fight against corruption. Morals are the root of politics and Islam, he noted.

Twenty-four people have been formally arrested under the corruption investigation that hit Turkey last week, including the sons of former Interior Minister Muammer Güler and former Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan, who handed over their portfolios Dec. 26 after resigning.