Ak Party Officials To Make Verbal Defense In Closure Case On Thursday

ANKARA - Two senior officials of the ruling Justice & Development (AK) Party will make the party`s verbal defense on Thursday in closure case filed by Turkey`s top prosecutor.
Members of the Constitutional Court will listen to State Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek and AK Party Parliamentary Group Deputy Chairman Bekir Bozdag at 10:00 a.m.
On Tuesday, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals, made his verbal statement at the court. Yalcinkaya asked the court to shut down AK Party and said AK Party wanted to bring Shariah order in Turkey.
Later in case process, 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, qualified majority of votes is required to outlaw a political party. Accordingly, votes of at least 7 out of 11 members of the court are needed to ban a political party.
The Constitutional Court can also rule to deprive the AK Party of financial assistance of the Treasury instead of dissolution.
Yalcinkaya filed a lawsuit on March 14th, asking the top court of Turkey to shut down 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 who is 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.
(TÇ-MS)