AK Party Submits Defense to Constitutional Court
Photo from ZamanThe ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) submitted its final written defense in the closure case filed against it to the Constitutional Court on Monday. The AK Party turned in its defense statement ahead of the deadline in an attempt to speed up the legal process to avoid lingering ambiguity. Media reports have claimed that the AK Party has already completed preparations for a new political party to be created in the event that the party is closed, although officials from the ruling party have denied such reports.
Turkey’s top prosecutor filed a case against the governing AK Party in March, demanding the party’s closure, as well as a ban on 71 former and current members from political activities, over allegations that the party has become a “focal point of anti-secular activities.”
In its introduction, the 98-page defense statement argues that the prosecutor’s indictment was formulated by ideological and political motives rather than legitimate legal concerns. …
It also argued that the prosecutor’s understanding of the concepts of democracy and secularism did not live up to the universally accepted understanding of these concepts. It argued that the prosecutor was defending secularism as a lifestyle rather than as a healthy separation between religion and state affairs. …
The defense statement also noted that banning the AK Party would be a violation of precedent cases heard by the European Court of Human Rights. It also argued that shutting down the AK Party would be a violation of the freedom to establish organizations. …
For the full article, click here.
For a longer article “Closure Case Built on Evidence Found Through Google”, click here.
For a copy of the AKP’s written response (in Turkish), click here: akparti_savunmasi1.doc
Hmm, the Turkish edition of Zaman has a story that details when the prosecutor searched for what on Google. It is unclear where they got that data from.
OK. I skimmed the defense document. Zaman’s piece is compiled, in part, from the data there. I suspect the prosecutor used printouts with time and date stamps, and that’s how they know when he did what.