PARLIAMENTARY IMMUNITY
Court Requested to Bring in DTP MPs by Force
Despite the parliamentary immunity the Ankara 11th High Criminal Court decided to bring convicted co-chair Emine Ayna of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and Diyarbakır MP Selahattin Demirtaş to court by force. A new notification will be issued to DTP president Ahmet Türk. The Kurdish MPs have been prosecuted because of the contents of speeches they have made.
The court adjourned the case on 26 May this year. It was postponed till today (29 September) because the MPs' statements were to be taken with a court notification. Ayna explained on NTV that she is not going to testify in the continuation of the court proceedings on 29 December either.
The Presidency of the Turkey Grand National Assembly (TBMM) had been notified about the court notification before and was informed that the directive did not reach the DTP MPs because of their busy schedules.
Kaboğlu: Removal of article 14 for a solution of the problem
Commenting on NTV, member of the Marmara University Law Faculty Prof. Dr. İbrahim Kaboğlu said that after a pending of the case for more than 3 months the Parliament has to deal with it as soon as it re-opens on 1 October.
Kaboğlu said that this situation can be solved by removing the exception related to article 14 concerning "terror crimes" as mentioned in article 83 of the constitution about "constitutional immunity".
Prof. Dr. Kaboğlu explained that this can end the bypassing of law at the level of the parliament's presidency.
The Diyarbakır 5thHigh Criminal Court asked the Ankara court for taking the statement of Diyarbakır MP Selahattin Demirtaş, for Türk it is the Istanbul 9th High Criminal Court and for Ayna it is the Adana 8th High Criminal Court. (EÖ/VK)