Top Turkish military chief visits top court head

ANKARA

AA Photo

Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel visited President Haşim Kılıç of the Constitutional Court on June 24.

Sources said the meeting was scheduled before the delivery of the top Court’s ruling concerning the Balyoz coup case convicts.

Still, Özel expressed his “extreme pleasure” over the ruling during his meeting with Kılıç, the same sources said.

In the meantime, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Istanbul deputy Engin Alan, a Balyoz convict who was released from prison last week, has taken his parliamentary oath, almost three years after being elected a member of Parliament in June 2011.

Alan’s release came after an Istanbul court ruled for the release of all convicts in the Balyoz case, a day after the Court ruled the rights of the 230 convicts were violated and should be retried.

Alan was the last deputy who remained behind bars after the release of Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Mustafa Balbay, who was detained as part of the Ergenekon trial, and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) lawmakers in detention as part of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) trial.

The releases followed separate rulings from the Constitutional Court.

Earlier on June 24, Alan attended the MHP’s parliamentary group meeting, where he was welcomed by party leader Devlet Bahçeli.