Constitutional Court To Begin Hearing Closure Case Against Ak Party On July 28th

ANKARA - Constitutional Court will begin hearing the closure case against Turkey's ruling Justice & Development (AK) Party on its merits on July 28th, 2008.
Under the Constitution, qualified majority of votes is required to disband a political party. Accordingly, at least 7 out 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 its dissolution.
The chief prosecutor of the Court of Appeals filed a lawsuit on March 14th, asking the top court of Turkey to ban the AK Party for anti-secular activities.
In his indictment, the chief prosecutor also demanded 71 people, including President Abdullah Gul, former foreign minister, and Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to be banned from politics for five years.
Earlier, rapporteur Osman Can advocated in his report that the court should reject the closure case.
(GC-MS)
(POL)