The new Turkey
Enis Berberoğlu.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy

Three opposition politicians stripped of their parliamentary seats have been detained and sent to jail.

A prosecutor in Turkey’s majority-Kurdish southeastern Diyarbakır province had issued arrest warrants for two Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputies on Thursday night, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Pro-Kurdish HDP’s former Hakkari deputy Leyla Güven and former Diyarbakır deputy Musa Farisoğulları were stripped of their seats in a parliamentary session earlier in the day based on finalised court orders over terrorism charges.

Farisoğulları was detained by the police on his way from Diyarbakır to the capital Ankara shortly after the warrant was issued. About an hour later, Güven was taken into custody from her home.

Saray Darbesiyle vekilliği düşürülen DTK Eşbaşkanı ve Hakkari Milletvekilimiz Leyla Güven de gözaltına alındı. İşte darbe budur. Seçmen iradesinin temsilcisi bir siyasetçinin evine onlarca polisle baskın yapmaktır. İntikamcılıktır Berxwedan Jiyan e diyenleri yıldıramayacaksınız! pic.twitter.com/NYs1rqthJJ

— HDP (@HDPgenelmerkezi) June 4, 2020

The third deputy stripped of his seat, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) member Enis Berberoğlu, was detained an hour after Güven. Berberoğlu had announced earlier that he would be going to the court house early Friday morning of his own volition.

"Why such tyranny for a person who would go to the prosecutor's office himself tomorrow?" tweeted CHP deputy Tuncay Özkan as he announced Berberoğlu's detention.

Enis Berberoğlu İstanbul’da şu an gözaltında. Vatan emniyete götürülüyor. Neden? Bunca zulm neden? Yarın savcıya kendisi gidecek bir insana bunca zalimlik neden? https://t.co/xMeDhGelRx

— Tuncay ÖZKAN (@ATuncayOzkan) June 4, 2020

In 2017, Berberoğlu was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his part in revealing to the public images that appeared to show Turkish intelligence services shipping weapons to Syrian rebels. His sentence was later reduced to five years.

Berberoğlu, who was a deputy in the previous term as well, was released some months after his re-election in 2018. Turkey’s Court of Cassation ruled to suspend his sentence until the end of his term in parliament, which under normal circumstances would have come in 2023.

Leyla Güven was convicted to six years and three months in prison for membership of a terrorist organisation over her attendance to a press conference protesting Turkey’s 2018 Operation Olive Branch into Kurdish-held northern Syrian province of Afrin, and memorial services for members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The indictment against Güven also mentioned her 200-day hunger strike protesting prison conditions for political prisoners and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who had been held in isolation without contact with his family or lawyers for eight years at the time.

Musa Farisoğulları was convicted to nine years in prison for the same charges, over his alleged attendance to funerals of two PKK members in 2018, as well as a condolence visit to another PKK member’s family. One of the funerals was for Mehmet Yakışır, who directed PKK activity in northern Turkey and was responsible for the death of a 15 year-old boy according to Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

Meanwhile, Cemile Eminoğlu, the Mayor of Bismil, a town within the southeastern Diyarbakir province also detained on Thursday, herself notified it over a tweet post. Eminoğlu was replaced by the government trustee in October, 2019.

Gözaltına alınıyorum. #BerxwedanJiyane

— Cemile Eminoğlu (@cemileeminoglu) June 4, 2020

A trial where the former editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet daily, Can Dündar, the newspaper’s former Ankara representative Erdem Gül, and main opposition CHP MP Enis Berberoğlu stand accused of “aiding a terrorist group without being its member” resumed on 6 February in Istanbul.

The accusation stems from the publication in Cumhuriyet of a news story about the alleged transfer of weapons to Syria on trucks operated by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

Erdem Gül, his lawyer, and the lawyers representing Berberoğlu and Dündar were in attendance at the closed hearing overseen by the 14th High Criminal Court of Istanbul.

The court rejected a motion filed by Berberoğlu’s lawyers for the trial to be abated because Berberoğlu has been elected to the Parliament in the latest elections. His lawyer Yiğit Acar reiterated their previous demand for new witnesses to be heard in court, and requested for additional time in the event the court rejected that request. The lawyers representing Dündar and Gül also requested additional time for their defense statements.

In its interim ruling, the court ruled to separate the file against Dündar. Rejecting the request by Bereberoğlu’s lawyers for additional witnesses to be heard, the court adjourned the trial until 15 May, granting additional time for the defense statements.

The same day, the 14th High Criminal Court of Istanbul also heard a separate case against Dündar, where the journalist in on retrial on the charge of “disclosing confidential information for espionage purposes.”

This was the third hearing in the case, which is also closed to the public. In its interim ruling, the court ruled to wait for the outcome of the request filed with German authorities for the extradition of Dündar and set 15 May as the date for the next hearing. The court also ruled to merge two other case files against Dündar, overseen by the same court, with the ongoing case on the grounds of legal and de facto connection among the files. Source

The 17th Chamber of Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals on Monday rejected a petition from jailed Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Enis Berberoğlu, who requested that a verdict be vacated and he be released on the grounds that he was re-elected in a general election on June 24.

A local court in İstanbul had sentenced Berberoğlu to five years, 10 months on charges of revealing state secrets as the source of a Cumhuriyet daily report on National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks carrying weapons to Syria, a verdict that was appealed by his lawyers after the election on June 24.

The lawyers applied to the Supreme Court of Appeals citing the 83rd article of the constitution, which governs the immunity of lawmakers, stating that Berberoğlu had regained his immunity and demanded that his verdict be vacated until a parliamentary decision is made to again remove his immunity and that he be retried by a lower court.

The 16th Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals rejected Berbaroğlu’s request on July 20, after which he protested the ruling with self-imposed isolation.

“I have decided not to have open or closed meetings with my family, my lawyers and other deputies, not to exercise my right to a defense in court and to halt all communications with the outside world,” Berberoğlu said in a written statement shared by his lawyer.

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu started a “Justice March” following Berberoğlu’s arrest in June 2017, walking from Ankara to İstanbul, where Berberoğlu was incarcerated. Although the march attracted much attention, it failed to affect the legal proceedings. Source

Oya Berberoğlu, the wife of jailed Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Enis Berberoğlu, has lashed out at the lack of justice in Turkey, saying that her husband is unlawfully being kept behind bars despite having parliamentary immunity.

Berberoğlu, a former journalist, was first sentenced to 25 years in prison on espionage charges in 2017 for giving the Cumhuriyet daily a video purporting to show Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucking weapons to radical Islamist rebel groups in Syria.

After a long appeals process, his sentence was reduced to five years, 10 months in jail in February of this year.

The CHP had appealed to the top court to release him on the grounds that he was granted immunity from prosecution after being re-elected as a lawmaker in the June 24 elections, adding that his prosecution should be suspended until he is stripped of his seat in parliament.

The Supreme Court of Appeals rejected the appeal on July 20, prompting the CHP to appeal to a higher chamber within the court, which was expected to assess his case last week.

The lack of a decision from the court before the Eid al-Adha holiday, which begins on Tuesday, apparently disappointed Berberoğlu’s wife, who is also a journalist.

In a statement on Tuesday Oya Berberoğlu said her husband is being unlawfully kept in Maltepe Prison in İstanbul although he reacquired parliamentary immunity for 15 months, adding that this situation is also against the Turkish Constitution.

She said she had expected justice to be served by noon on Monday but was disappointed due to the lack of a court decision in favor of her husband.

“We trusted the judiciary of this country, but my confidence in justice has eroded. Unfortunately, there is a [judicial] structure that changes according to the political winds. There can be no such justice or judicial system. There is neither the rule of law nor the separation of powers in this country. All of them have been destroyed,” said Berberoğlu.

Turkey’s judiciary is being criticized for acting on orders from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and not basing their rulings on the law. Judges in Turkey who make decisions that anger Erdoğan are either replaced or jailed.

Jailed lawmaker Enis Berberoğlu said he would cut all communication with his family, lawyers, and fellow lawmakers in a declaration he made via his lawyers on July 22, protesting the Court of Cassation’s July 20 rejection of a demand to stop legal proceedings against him.

“Here is my independent decision,” his statement began.

“I have thoroughly pondered what my reaction would be against the Court of Cassation’s trampling of my constitutional right. I have come to the decision to stop using my free visitation rights with my family, my lawyers, and the lawmakers,” Berberoğlu said.

“I have decided not to use my right to defense before the court and cut all external communication [outside of the prison]. This tough decision will surely not please my family, my lawyers, my party and my loves ones. Thus, [the decision] is independent from them and even in spite of them,” said the lawmaker.

“Enis Berberoğlu, The Lawmaker Whose Constitution Was Stolen From Him,” he signed the statement.

Berberoğlu was re-elected in the June 24 snap elections as an MP from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

The demand on July 20 was filed by his lawyers who said the lawmaker was once again granted immunity from prosecution with the last election, and such a situation would stop the continuation of proceedings against him. The lawyers argued that the proceedings against the deputy should be suspended until he is once again stripped of his parliamentary immunity.

The lawyers have also demanded Berberoğlu’s release, which the court said they would handle later on.

In February, an Istanbul court sentenced Berberğlu to five years and 10 months in jail after convicting him of disclosing government secrets.

Berberoğlu was initially sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2017 for espionage over charges he gave daily Cumhuriyet a video purporting to show Turkey’s intelligence agency trucking weapons into Syria.

In a retrial that finished on Feb. 13 of this year, Berberoğlu, who has denied the charges, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in jail. Source