No need for ex-opposition deputy retrial: Turkish court

ISTANBUL

An Istanbul court ruled Tuesday that there is no need for a retrial of a former main opposition party lawmaker.

Istanbul’s High Criminal Court no:14 said Enis Berberoglu, a former Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker who in 2017 was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for leaking state secrets, does not need a new trial.

On Sept. 17, Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled that Berberoglu’s right to be elected and engage in political activities and right to personal liberty and security had been violated.

The court then sent a copy of its ruling to the Istanbul High Criminal Court no:14 for a retrial in order to eliminate the consequences of the violation.

‘Interference in jurisdiction’

In today’s ruling, the Istanbul court said the Constitutional Court’s duty was to identify the violation in the case and then guide the court on how to remove or stop the violation.

The court then argued that the Constitutional Court order for a retrial “is interference in the decision made within the jurisdiction of our court.''

Berberoglu was found guilty of leaking footage to a journalist showing National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks being stopped en route to Syria in January 2014.

In that incident, gendarmerie officers affiliated with the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) stopped the MIT trucks on their way to Syria, despite government orders to let them pass.

FETO and its US-based leader, Fetullah Gulen, orchestrated the defeated coup on July 15, 2016, leaving 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured, and is also accused of extensive infiltration of state institutions.

*Writing by Yunus Girgin in Ankara