ANKARA - A Turkish chief prosecutor made a verbal statement in a closure case against the ruling party on Tuesday.
Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals, made a verbal statement regarding the closure case against the Justice & Development (AK) Party in Ankara.
The verbal statement at the Constitutional Court, the top court of Turkey, lasted one and a half hours.
AK Party executives will make a verbal defense on Thursday. State Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek and Bekir Bozdag, deputy chairman of the AK Party group at the parliament, are expected to defend their party.
Later, a rapporteur to be assigned by the court will prepare a report on the merits of the case.
In this phase, the chief prosecutor can submit further evidence and AK Party can submit additional material to the rapporteur. Then, the report will be distributed to 11 members of the court for consideration.
Afterwards, Constitutional Court Chief Judge Hasim Kilic will set a date and the court will start hearing the case on its merits.
Under the Constitution, majority of votes is required to outlaw a political party. Accordingly, at least 7 of 11 members of the court need to vote in favor of the closure of the party.
The Constitutional Court can also rule to deprive the AK Party of financial assistance of the Treasury instead of closing it down.
Yalcinkaya filed a lawsuit on March 14th, asking the top court of Turkey to close the AK Party. He claimed that the party has become the focal point of anti-secular activities.
In his indictment, the chief prosecutor demanded 71 people, including President Abdullah Gul, former foreign minister, and Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to be banned from politics for five years.
On March 31st, the Constitutional Court convened to make a preliminary assessment of the indictment and the judges accepted to open a debate on it unanimously while they voted 7-4 on the part of the indictment related to President Gul.
AK Party submitted its preliminary written defense to the court on April 30th, and the chief prosecutor submitted his opinion on the merits of the case on May 30th.
(BRC-MS)